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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 







UNCLE WIGGILY’S RHEUMATISM 



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he Famous Un cle Wiggily Bedtime Stories 


UNCLE WIGGILY’S 
RHEUMATISM 


By 

3 R. GA 


HOWARD R. GARIS 


“ Author of the “ U ncle Wiggily Bedtime Stories ” 
“ The Daddy Books,” 
u Circus Animal Stories,” Etc . 


Illustrated by 

EDWARD BLOOMFIELD 


Publishers 

A. L. BURT COMPANY 

NEW YORK 


The Famous Uncle Wiggily 
Bed Time Series 

By HOWARD R. GARIS 

Intended for reading aloud to the little folks each 
night. ^ Each volume contains 8 colored illustrations and 
31 stories, one for each day of the month. Handsomely 
bound in cloth. Size 6J^ x 8JT 



Price 75c. Net 


BED TIME ANIMAL STORIES 

No. 1. SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL 
No. 2. JOHNNY AND BILLY BUSHYTAIL 
No. 3. LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLE- 
WOBBLE 

No. 5. JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW-WOW 
No. 7. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG 
No. 9. JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT 
No. 10. CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK 
No. 14. NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL 
No. 16. BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL 
No. 20. NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL 
No. 28. JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONG-TAIL 
No. 30. JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL 
No. 31. CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTY TAIL 
No. 33. TOODLE AND NOODLE FLATTAIL 
No. 36. DOTTIE AND WILLIE FLUFFTAIL 

UNCLE WIGGILY BED TIME STORIES 

No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY’S ADVENTURES 
No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRAVELS 
No. 8. UNCLE WIGGILY’S FORTUNE 
No. 11. UNCLE WIGGILY’S AUTOMOBILE 
No. 19. UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE 
No. 21. UNCLE WIGGILY’S AIRSHIP 
No. 27. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY 
No. 29. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS 
No. 32. UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM 
No. 34. UNCLE WIGGILY’S JOURNEY 
No. 35. UNCLE WIGGILY’S RHEUMATISM 
No. 37. UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY 


COPYRIGHT, 1920 


R. F. FENNO 5c COMPANY 

NEW YORK 

UNCLE WIGGILY’S RHEUMATISM 


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SEP 29 I92(^ cu576656 ' ^ 


CONTENTS 




Q 


CHAPTER 


I. 

Uncle Wiggily 

II. 

Uncle Wiggily 

III. 

Uncle Wiggily 

IV. 

Uncle Wiggily 

V. 

Uncle Wiggily 

VI. 

Uncle Wiggily 

VII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

VIII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

IX. 

Uncle Wiggily 

X. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XI. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XIII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XIV. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XV. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XVI. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XVII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XVIII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XIX. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XX. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXI. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXIII. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXIV. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXV. 

Uncle Wiggily 

XXVI. 

Uncle Wiggily 




PAGE 

and the Lemonade 9 

and the Apple Dumpling 18 

Helps Dr. Possum 27 

and Charlie Chick 36 

and Arabella Chick 44 

and the School Bell 53 

and Charlie’s Auto 61 

and the Barber 70 

and the Thimble 79 

and the Valentines 87 

and the Sawdust Doll 96 

Learns to Dance 103 

Does a Flip-Flop no 

Helps Charlie Chick 118 

in a Trap 125 

and the Rocking Horse 132 

and the Ball of Yarn 138 

at a Fire 145 

and the Wagon Sleds 152 

Finds Sammie 158 

and the Butterfly 165 

and the Slipping Horsie 172 

and the March Wind 179 

and the Snow Plow 186 

and Mrs. Chick 193 

and the Little Chickies 200 



Uncle Wiggily ’s Rheumatism 


CHAPTER I 

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LEMONADE 

Once upon a time, a few days after Uncle 
Wiggily Longears and the lively lobster had 
escaped from the bad Sand Hoppers, the old 
rabbit gentleman sat in his hollow stump 
bungalow, looking at his left leg. 

“ Well, what is the matter now ? ” asked 
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, 
who kept house for Uncle Wiggily. “Can’t 
you get your shoes on ? ” 

“ Oh yes, it isn’t that,” he answered with a 
sigh, as he brushed a cobweb from his tall 
silk hat. “It’s the rheumatism again, Miss 
Fuzzy Wuzzy !” 

“ My goodness me sakes alive ! and some 
peanut pan-cakes ! ” exclaimed the muskrat 
lady. “ That’s too bad 1 I thought you lost 
your rheumatism when you went for a sail 
9 


10 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


across the duck pond ocean, and around the 
world with Grandfather Goosey Gander.” 

“ Well, I did lose part of my rheumatism 
then,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ But — Ouch ! 
Ouch ! Oh my ! ” he suddenly exclaimed. 

“ What’s the matter ? ” asked Nurse Jane. 
“ A pain ? ” 

“ A bad pain,” replied the rabbit gentleman, 
as he tied both his ears in a hard knot. 

“ Perhaps if I rub some peppermint candy on 
your leg it will make you feel better,” the musk- 
rat lady kindly said. 

“ No, thank you,” went on Uncle Wiggily. 
“ The pain is better now. Save the peppermint 
candy for Sammie or Susie Littletail, or for one 
of the Bushytail squirrel boys. I thought I had 
gotten rid of my rheumatism on my trip around 
the world, but some one must have found where 
I lost the pain, and sent some of it back to me. 

“ I suppose they meant to be kind,” Uncle 
Wiggily went on, making his nose twinkle like a 
star on a Christmas tree, “ but I really didn’t 
care to have my rheumatism back. 

“ However I know what I’ll do. I’ll go for 
a walk out in the hot sun. Warmth is good for 
pain they say. I’ll take a warm walk and see 
what happens.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Lemonade 11 


“ Do,” said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, and so 
Uncle Wiggily started to take a hop through the 
hot city streets, near the wood where he lived with 
the other animal folk. 

“ Perhaps living in the damp woods gave me 
the rheumatism,” said Uncle Wiggily to him- 
self. “ I must try what the hot city will do for 
me.” 

So he walked on, thinking of many things, and 
wondering how his friend Grandfather Goosey 
Gander was getting on, and how Sammie and 
Susie Littletail were, and Jimmie Wibblewob- 
ble, and also the duck sisters, when, all at once, 
the rabbit gentleman came to a street where 
there was not a bit of shade. Not a tree grew on 
it. 

“ My ! ” he exclaimed, “ it will be very hot to 
walk along here. I wish I had thought to bring 
a cabbage leaf to put in my tall hat ! ” 

But he had none, and not even an umbrella, 
and he knew that if he wanted to see Sammie 
Littletail, or any of his other friends, he must 
walk along that hot street for some distance until 
he got out into the cooler part of the town, where 
the rabbit boy lived. 

“ Well, it is no worse for me than for the poor 
people, who can’t get away from the hot city,” 


12 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


spoke Uncle Wiggily. “ I will hop along, and 
maybe I will meet with an adventure.” 

So he hopped on, and it kept getting hotter 
and hotter, until at last the pavements were so 
blistering that I verily believe that if you had 
dropped an egg on one of the smooth stones the 
shell would have broken, and the egg would 
have been fried as well as if it had been cooked on 
the gas stove. 

“ My ! My ! ” exclaimed the rabbit gentle- 
man. “ This is fierce, if you will kindly allow 
me to make use of that expression.” 

He looked around, hoping he might see a 
polar bear gentleman selling ice cream cones, 
but he could see none. He did see, however, a 
little stand, with a striped awning over it, and 
underneath this was a nice old dog gentleman, 
selling lemonade. And the lemonade-dog sang 
this little song : 

“ Lemonade, oh lemonade ! 

Lots of ice, and in the shade, 

Nice and cool, made in a pail, 

I have lemonade for sale, 

Lemonade, oh lemonade ! 

Lots of ice, and in the shade ! ” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Lemonade 13 


“ Ah, ha ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “ That 
sounds most refreshing. I think I will have a 
large glassful of lemonade.” 

So he went up to where the dog gentleman was 
sitting beneath the striped awning, Uncle Wig- 
gily did, and he said : 

“ One of your best glasses of lemonade in the 
shade, if you please.” 

“ Of course ! ” exclaimed the dog gentleman 
briskly, wagging his tail to make a breeze. 
“ This lemonade is ” 

Then he stopped suddenly and exclaimed : 

“ Well, of all the bow-wows I ever barked! ” 

“ What’s the matter? ” asked Uncle Wiggily, 
curiously. 

“ Why, if it isn’t my dear old friend, Uncle 
Wiggily Longears ! ” exclaimed the lemonade 
dog. “ Who would have believed it? ” 

“ What’s that? ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ Well, if you aren’t Old Percival, the circus 
dog! ” 

“ Of course I am,” was the answer. “ I 
learned how to make pink lemonade when I was 
traveling with the circus, and, now that I am in 
the hot city, I make it and sell it. But I never 
thought to see you here. What is going on? ” 

So the rabbit gentleman told how he had come 


14 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


back from his trip with Grandfather Goosey 
Gander, and Percival said: 

“ One minute. I’ll just go in the house, for I 
live right back of my lemonade stand, and I’ll get 
you some cake to eat while you sip your cool 
drink. Of course, the cakes are only dog biscuit, 
but you may like them.” 

“ Indeed I shall,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, so 
Percival went in the house to get them. But 
when he got there he found, not exactly the cup- 
board bare, but he found that there were no cakes 
left, so he hurried off to the bakery to buy some 
for Uncle Wiggily, and he didn’t tell the rabbit 
gentleman where he was going, but he just 
hurried out the back door, to be polite and stylish. 

So Uncle Wiggily sat down under the lem- 
onade awning to wait for Percival to come 
back with the dog biscuit, and to pour out a cool 
glassful of the sweet-sour stuff. And the rabbit 
gentleman just thought while he was waiting 
that he would look in the big pail of lemonade 
to see how it was made. 

Taking off the cover, Uncle Wiggily leaned 
over to look in, when, all at once, something 
dreadful happened. 

“ Now we’ve got him! Now we have him! ” 
suddenly exclaimed a voice, and up rushed the 


Uncle Wiggily and the Lemonade 15 


two bad Sand Hoppers. One of them grabbed 
the lemonade pail cover away from Uncle Wig- 
gily and the other pushed him in the pail of 
lemonade and clapped the cover on. 

“ Now we have him ! ” the Sand Hoppers 
cried. “ We’ll keep him in the lemonade and 
then he can’t get away from us ! ” 

Well, of course Old Dog Percival was not 
there to help, and there was no one else on the 
street then, because it was so hot, and it did 
seem as if this was the last of Uncle Wiggily. 
For he was in the lemonade pail with the cover 
held tightly on and the Sand Hoppers were sit- 
ting a-top of it to hold it down. 

“ Let me out! Oh, let me out! ” cried Uncle 
Wiggily in a lemonady, smothery voice. “ Please 
let me out ! ” 

“Never!” cried the bad Sand Hoppers. 
“ You shall not escape us again! ” 

“ Oh, help ! Will no one help me? ” begged 
the rabbit gentleman. 

“ Of course some one will ! ” suddenly shouted 
a voice. “ Come on, every one ! Help dear 
Uncle Wiggily ! ” 

And up rushed a brave little mousie girl and 
her brother and sister, and a clever doggie boy, 


16 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


and a scratchy kittie cat girl. Right at those two 
bad Sand Hoppers they bravely rushed. 

“ Tip ’em over ! Pinch their tails. Throw 
ice and salt on ’em ! ” cried the big mousie girl, 
and she and her friends just ran right at the two 
bad Sand Hoppers. The unpleasant animals 
tried to sit fast on the cover of the lemonade pail, 
to keep Uncle Wiggily there, but the animal chil- 
dren were too much for them. 

Over went the pail of lemonade with a splash, 
and out popped Uncle Wiggily, only just in 
time, for his breath was almost gone. And as 
for those bad Sand Hoppers, their tails were 
pinched, and they got ice and salt in their eyes, 
and their fuzzy fur was all wet, and then they 
were glad to run off and leave Uncle Wiggily 
alone, at least for a time. 

And then Percival came back with the dog 
biscuit, and he was very sorry for what had hap- 
pened to Uncle Wiggily. So he made more 
lemonade and gave all the nice animal children 
as much as they could drink; cold and sweet 
it was, too. 

Then, when Uncle Wiggily had dried himself 
off on the hot street, he also drank some 
lemonade, and thanked tha mousie girl and her 
friends for saving him. 


Uncle Wiggily and the Lemonade 17 


“ Well, do you think your rheumatism is any 
better? ” asked old dog Percival of Uncle Wig- 
gily, when there was no more lemonade to drink. 

“ Yes, I think it is a little better,” replied the 
rabbit gentleman. “ Whether it was being 
scared by the bad Sand Hoppers, or because 
of the hot city streets, or perhaps because of your 
nice lemonade I can’t say, but I am somewhat 
better.” 

“ And I hope you will keep on getting better,” 
said old dog Percival. 

“ Thank you,” spoke Uncle Wiggily politely. 

Then the rabbit gentleman hopped on back 
to his hollow stump bungalow, glad that he had 
escaped from the Sand Hoppers, and also feel- 
ing happy because he had had a chance to be 
kind to some animal children. 

And in the chapter after this, if the jumping 
Jack doesn’t stumble over the pudding stick, 
and fall into the custard pie, I’ll tell you about 
Uncle Wiggily and the apple dumpling. 


CHAPTER II 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE APPLE DUMPLING 

Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the kind muskrat 
lady who lived with Uncle Wiggily Longears, 
the rabbit gentleman, and looked after his rheu- 
matism, was out in the kitchen of the hollow 
stump bungalow. She was clattering away with 
the pots and pans and kettles, now and then 
putting some ice in the stove to make the fire 
hotter, and all the while she was singing away 
like this: 

“ Merrily to-day I bake, 

Perhaps ’twill be a chocolate cake. 

Or e’en a pudding — who can tell? 

Uncle Wiggily likes them well. 

Puddings, pies — I both can bake ; 

New, let’s see ; what shall I make? ” 

“ Well, my goodness me, sakes alive and 
some chocolate drops ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wig- 
gily, who was reading the paper in the parlor. 
“ Nurse Jane is certainly good to me.” 

18 


Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling 19 


Then he happened to think to himself. 

“ I’U just go out there on the tip ends of my 
paws and see what she is really baking. Then 
I’ll know what I’m going to have for supper.” 

So the rabbit gentleman whose rheumatism 
was a little better that day, went softly out toward 
the kitchen, where Nurse Jane was as busy as 
could be. Every once in a while she would sing 
a verse or two of that song, and then she’d beat a 
tatty-tat-too tune on the bottom of the dishpan 
with the end of her tail. Oh! Nurse Jane was 
as happy as the longest day in June, and those 
days are always the longest we have, you know. 

“ Oh, my ! Something smells most delicious ! ” 
exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he came nearer 
the kitchen. And, really, something did smell 
so nicely that Uncle Wiggily’s whiskers flopped 
up and down like the puppy dog’s tail when he’s 
running after a bone. 

“ Boo ! ” all of a sudden Uncle Wiggily cried 
as he jumped out from behind the kitchen door. 
“Boo! Boo!” 

“ Mercy sakes alive ! How you frightened 
me! ” exclaimed Nurse Jane sitting down in a 
chair and fanning herself with the feather 
duster. “ Oh, Uncle Wiggily! ” 

“ I didn’t mean to scare you,” said the rabbit 


20 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


gentleman kindly. “ Pray forgive me. But 
what are you making that smells so nicely, Nurse 
Jane? ” 

“ An apple dumpling,” said she. 

“ Apple dumpling? Seems to me I’ve heard 
of them,” said Uncle Wiggily with a smile. 

“ I’m sure you have — and eaten them, too,” 
answered Nurse Jane with a laugh. 

“ They are not made with turnips, are they? ” 
asked Uncle Wiggily. 

“ The very idea ! Certainly not ! ” cried the 
muskrat lady. “ They are made of apples and 
sugar and flour and water and cinnamon, and 
spice and everything nice.” 

“ Good! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Oh, mercy me ! ” exclaimed Nurse Jane, sud- 
denly jumping up. “ Oh, my goodness ! ” 

“ What’s the matter? ” asked Uncle Wiggily. 
“ I hope I have not frightened you again, Miss 
Fuzzy Wuzzy.” 

“No, indeed!” she said, opening the oven 
door. “ But I thought I smelled the apple 
dumplings burning. No, they’re all right,” she 
said, and she lifted from the oven two of the 
nicest apple dumplings you could ever imagine, 
even at Christmas time. They were all puffed 
up, and steaming, and there was just the right 


Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling 21 


amount of apple in them, and not a bit more, 
and just exactly the right amount of sugar in 
them, and not a bit more, and just exactly the 
right amoynt of spice in them, and not a bit 
more. 

“ What ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, looking 
through his spectacles. “ Two apple dump- 
lings ! Indeed this is a lucky day for me ! ” he 
exclaimed. “ This is fine ! ” 

“ Oh, please don’t be so hasty,” begged Nurse 
Jane, as she began to mix up the cabbage sauce 
to pour over the dumplings. “ Only one is for 
you, Uncle Wiggily. I made the other for 
Grandfather Goosey Gander, and, if you like, 
you may take it right over to him. I’ll put it in 
a pail, and cover it up, so it will keep hot a long 
time. Then you may take it in your auto- 
mobile.” 

“ I’ll do so, at once ! ” said Uncle Wiggily. 
“ And when I come back I’ll eat my apple dump- 
ling. Oh, what a lovely day it is! ” 

Really it wasn’t such a nice day, for it was 
cold and snowing hard, but it seemed nice to 
Uncle Wiggily on account of the apple dump- 
ling, you see. 

Well, Nurse Jane soon had placed one of the 
apple dumplings in a pail, where it could cuddle 


22 


Uncle Wiggily Longcars 


up all by itself and keep hot, and a little later 
Uncle Wiggily drove his automobile around to 
the front door. Into the machine he got, and, 
with the apple dumpling pail under a blanket, 
away he started over the hills and through the 
woods, to where Grandfather Goosey Gander, 
the goose gentleman, lived. 

The old gentleman rabbit had not gone on 
very far before he came to a lonesome part of the 
woods. He was hurrying through this as fast as 
he could go, for he thought maybe some bad 
dogs might be there, and chase him, when, all at 
once, he came to a little stump house. 

It was a house made in a hollow stump, such 
as many animals live in, but it was a very poor 
and shabby sort of house. The windows were 
stuffed with bits of rags and papers, instead of 
having glass in them. The door hung by only 
one hinge, and there was no smoke coming out 
of the chimney. 

“ Some poor animals must live in there,” said 
Uncle Wiggily to himself. “ It must be cold in 
there, too, on a day like this. I wonder if I could 
help them? ” 

Then he heard, from the hollow stump house, 
a sad little voice, crying : 

“ Oh, mamma, I’m so cold and hungry! ” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling 23 


And another little voice said : 

“ Oh, mamma, if I could only get warm, and 
have something nice to eat. Even a dried crust 
of nut-bread would do.” 

Then a third voice said: 

“ You poor little dears ! I don’t know what to 
do. There isn’t a nut in the stump, and not so 
much as a piece of birch bark to make a fire. 
I am so sorry for you ! ” 

“ Ha ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, 
the rabbit gentleman, blinking his eyes. “ This 
is where I must do something,” and something 
fell out of his eye and fell down on his twin- 
kling nose — something glistening like a rain 
drop, only it wasn’t. Maybe Uncle Wiggily 
was crying — I’m not saying for sure, you know; 
but maybe. 

Anyhow, he got softly out of his automobile, 
and went still more softly up to one of the broken 
windows of the stump house. He looked in, 
and he saw a poor old squirrel lady, and her 
two little squirrel children. And, oh! how 
hungry they looked. And how cold ! The cup- 
board door was open and that cupboard was 
just as bare as the one Mother Hubbard went to 
to get her poor dog a bone. 

“ Ha! I’ll soon fix this! ” cried Uncle Wig- 


24 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


gily. Back to his auto he went so fast that he 
hardly needed his rheumatism cornstalk crutch. 
He caught up the pail with the hot apple dump- 
ling in it, and into the stump house he went on 
the jump. 

“ There ! ” he cried. “ Little squirrels — there 
is something to make you warm. Just gather 
around it, and toast your tootsies ! I’ll soon have 
a regular fire here, and you’ll be all right, but 
get warm at this pail, first.” 

“ What a strange thing — a fire in a pail,” said 
the squirrel lady. “ How funny.” 

“ Wait until you see what else is in the pail — 
that will be more wonderful,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily, his nose twinkling like two stars on a frosty 
night. “ Gather ’round and get warm.” 

And the squirrel mamma, and the little cold 
squirrel children, did so, looking at Uncle Wig- 
gily with strange eyes, as though they thought 
he was a fairy and might vanish up the chimney, 
taking the nice pail with him. 

But nothing like that happened. And, oh! 
what a lovely heat the pail gave out. Soon the 
mamma squirrel and the little ones were as 
warm as breakfast toast. Then the littlest 
squirrel whispered : 


Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling 25 


“ Oh mamma, if we only had something to 
eat now, we would be so happy ! ” 

“ Hush ! ” said her mamma softly. 

“ No need at all to hush! ” cried Uncle Wig- 
gily, gaily. “ Here you are ! Something to eat 
as well as to get warm with ! ” 

He took the cover off the pail, and, oh! what 
a delicious smell came out from the apple dump- 
ling. 

“ There you are ! ” cried the old rabbit gentle- 
man. “ Eat all you like. It can’t hurt you ! ” 
And I wish you could have seen those squirrel 
children and their mamma eat! No, on second 
thoughts I do not, for it would have made you 
want some of that apple dumpling, and there 
was not enough for all of you. 

And while the poor squirrels, who were now 
warm, were eating the dumpling, Uncle Wig- 
gily went to the store in his auto, and he bought 
coal for the stove and lots of things for the 
squirrel family to eat, so they were never cold 
or hungry again. Then Uncle Wiggily went 
home. 

“ Where’s that other apple dumpling? ” he 
asked Nurse Jane. “ I want to take it to Grand- 
father Goosey.” 


26 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ Why ! ” cried the muskrat lady. “ I gave it 
to you ! Did you lose it? ” 

“ Never mind what happened to it! ” laughed 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I’ll just take this one to him, 
and you can make me another,” and off he went 
with the second apple dumpling. This one he 
really took to Grandpa Goosey. 

“ Well, isn’t he the queerest rabbit gentleman 
you ever saw? ” exclaimed Nurse Jane, as she 
started to make more good things for Uncle 
Wiggily to eat. “ I wonder what he did with 
that first apple dumpling? ” 

But don’t you ever tell; will you? 

And, in the next chapter, if the loaf of bread 
doesn’t get the toothache and jump out of the 
oven into the dishpan I’ll tell you about Uncle 
Wiggily helping Dr. Possum. 


CHAPTER III 


UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS DR. POSSUM 

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentle- 
man, put on his long fur coat, wrapped a muffler 
around his neck, and, drawing on his red mit- 
tens, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the 
muskrat lady, had knit for him, he started out to 
the barn where his automobile slept. 

“ Where are you going this time? ” asked 
Nurse Jane, as she stood on her head in the 
kitchen door, drying a breakfast plate by fan- 
ning it with her tail. 

“ Oh, just out for a little ride,” answered 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Perhaps I may find an ad- 
venture on the road.” 

“ Yes, and perhaps you may find some poor 
cold and starving family of squirrels and 
chickens,” said Nurse Jane. “ Do you want a 
nice warm rice pudding to take along with 
you? ” 

“ Indeed, that would be very nice ! ” exclaimed 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I’ll put the hot rice pudding 
27 


28 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


in my auto, as I did the hot apple dumpling the 
other day, and if I find any one who is cold 1 will 
let them warm their paws, and then eat the pud- 
ding.” 

You know I told you, in the story before this 
one, how the rabbit gentleman did that to a poor 
family of squirrels, only it was an apple dump- 
ling instead of a rice pudding. 

Soon Nurse Jane had the pudding ready, and, 
putting it in a pail, with a cover on so it would 
not spill, she gave it to Uncle Wiggily. Then 
he called “ giddap ” to his auto, tickled the what- 
you-may-call-it with a feather duster, and away 
he went over the hills and through the woods 
as fast as anything. 

Well, he hadn’t gone very far before he came 
to a nice little house, made of birch bark, with 
Christmas tree trimmings. And no sooner had 
the rabbit gentleman reached this house than he 
heard some one inside calling out : 

“ Oh, this is too bad ! Really this is dreadful ! 
I don’t know what I am going to do! Oh, if 
some one would only help me ! ” 

“ My! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “ Trou- 
ble again ! I seem always to be finding trouble. 
I wonder what can have happened here? I’ll 
go see.” 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Dr. Possum 29 


He stopped his auto and went to the front 
door of the birch bark house. Some one inside 
kept on saying: 

“ Oh, it’s too bad ! What am I to do? And 
Tommie Kat so ill, too ! Oh, this is very sad ! ” 
“Come, come!” thought Uncle Wiggily. 
“ This is strange. Tommie Kat does not live 
here, and it does not look like a house where any 
poor, cold and starving animals would live. I 
wonder if this is a trap to catch me? ” 

Then he looked at the door plate, and he read 
the name : 


DR. POSSUM. 

“ Oh, I see ! ” exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. 
“ This is Dr. Possum’s new house. He must 
have just moved into it, and something has hap- 
pened. I’ll see what it is.” 

So Uncle Wiggily went inside the birch bark 
house, all trimmed with Christmas trees, and 
there he saw Dr. Possum sitting in a big chair. 
And Dr. Possum was all tied up in bandages, 
and he had a whole lot of medicines in bottles 
on a table in front of him, and he was saying 
over and over again : 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” 


30 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ Why, whatever is the matter? ” asked Uncle 
Wiggily, anxiously. 

“Oh, everything!” replied Dr. Possum. 
“ You see, I moved in my new house yesterday, 
and when I was fixing my stove the pipe fell on 
me. And I’m all cut and bruised and lame. I 
can’t go out to see any sick animals, and here 
comes a telephone call just now, saying that 
Tommie Kat, the kitten boy, is very ill. I can’t 
go to attend him, and I don’t know what to do. 
Oh, dear!” 

“ Well, it is too bad when a doctor himself is 
taken ill,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, “ especially 
when sick kittie boys need him, and there is no 
one else to go. Let me see now! What can I 
do? Ha! I have it, I’ll go in your place, Dr. 
Possum.” 

“ You’ll go in my place? ” 

“ Yes, I think I can help Tommie. You can 
give me the medicine, and I can feel to see if his 
nose is hot, which means he has a fever, and then 
I’ll give him something cooling. Yes, for this 
once, let me be the doctor. Will that help you 
any? ” 

“ Indeed it will,” answered Dr. Possum. 
“ And I think, you can do as well as I. Now let 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Dr. Possum 31 


me see, I’ll tell you about the different kinds of 
medicines for sick cats. 

“ Here are some green pills,” went on Dr. 
Possum, as he gave Uncle Wiggily a bottle full, 
“ and some pink ones and some yellow ones and 

some purple ones ” 

“Gracious!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Has Tommie Kat got to take all those? He 
might as well swallow a rainbow ! ” 

“ Oh, no, but you have to take all the different 
pills with you. In case he has the toothache give 
Tommie a green pill. But if he has a pain in 
his tail, give him a pink one. Then, in case he 
has cold ears, a yellow pill must be given. But 
if you find his eyes blinking too fast, let him 
swallow one of these red powders. On the other 
hand, if his paws are trembling he will need a 
black and white spotted pill. Do you think you 
can remember all that? ” 

“ Oh, yes,” answered Uncle Wiggily. “ Give 
me all those medicines, and I’ll hurry off to make 
Tommie better. I am glad I can help you, Dr. 
Possum, though I hope you yourself will soon 
be well, for I am not used to being a doctor.” 

“ Indeed, you are very kind to help me,” spoke 
Dr. Possum, as he rubbed a little salve on the 
sore place where the stove pipe had struck him. 


32 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


So Uncle Wiggily started off again in his auto, 
taking Dr. Possum’s medicines with him to make 
Tommie Kat better. Soon the rabbit gentleman 
arrived at the Kat house. 

“ Oh, have you seen Dr. Possum anywhere? ” 
cried Kittie Kat, running out of the front door 
to meet Uncle Wiggily. “ We have telephoned 
for him to come to Tommie, but he hasn’t come, 
and ” 

“ Calm yourself, and have no fears, little one,” 
said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “ I have come in 
Dr. Possum’s place. He is all bruised by the 
stove pipe falling on him, so I am going to be 
the doctor.” 

“ Oh, how lovely! ” cried Kittie Kat, jump- 
ing up and down on the end of her tail, and 
clapping her paws. “ Tommie ! Tommie ! ” 
she cried to her brother, “ Uncle Wiggily has 
come to doctor you.” 

“ Well, then I wish he’d hurry up,” sadly said 
Tommie, “ for I feel very badly. Boo-hoo ! ” 

Into the house went Uncle Wiggily — or, 
maybe I should call him Dr. Wiggily just this 
once. 

“ Well, Tommie, my boy, how are you? ” he 
asked. 


Uncle Wipfqily Helps Dr. Possum 33 


“ Awful sick,” said Tommie in a hoarse voice. 
“ Terrible!” 

Dr. Uncle Wiggily felt of Tommie’s nose. 
It was quite warm. His paws were also trem- 
bling, and his tail was twitching. Also his eyes 
blinked as fast as a rubber doll’s when she 
bounces out of the bath tub. 

“ Have you any pain? ” asked Dr. Uncle 
Wiggily. 

“ Oh, I’ve got pains all over ! ” answered 
Tommie, rolling his eyes. “ All over I have 
pains ! ” 

“ Hum! That is very bad,” thought Dr. 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Dr. Possum gave me no 
medicine for pains all over. What shall I do? ” 
He looked at the pink pills, and at the green 
ones, and at the purple ones, and at the yellow- 
striped and pink-dotted ones, and at the red 
powder. But none of them seemed to be in- 
tended for pains all over. Then Uncle Wiggily 
knew how hard it was to be a doctor, and to have 
to guess what medicines are best to give. 

“ I wish I knew what to do,” thought the 
rabbit gentleman. “ I may give the wrong 
medicine. Well, I’ve got to do something, any- 
how. I know! I’ll give Tommie some of the 


34 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


rice pudding, making believe that is medicine, 
tell him a fairy story, and see how that works.” 

Out went Dr. Uncle Wiggily to his auto, and 
got the rice pudding, which was still hot. 

“ Here, Tommie,” he said, “ is a new kind of 
medicine, very nice to take. And when you are 
taking it I’ll tell you a story.” 

“ Oh, may we listen? ” begged Kittie and Joie 
Kat. 

“ Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, “ and you may 
also have some of the medicine.” 

“ Oh, we don’t want that! ” cried Kittie, mak- 
ing a funny face. But when they saw how 
Tommie liked the rice pudding medicine the 
two kitten girls begged for some, and they both 
said it was very nice. 

“ I feel better already,” cried Tommie, and 
really his nose was cooler, and his eyes didn’t 
blink so fast. “ I guess I was only hungry 
instead of being sick,” he went on. 

Then Uncle Wiggily told a story about a little 
boy who went coasting down hill and fell into a 
fairy cave where he had bread and honey for 
breakfast. And it was such an interesting story 
that Tommie didn’t think at all about being ill. 
And then Uncle Wiggily put a sleepy-sleepy- 
sleepy part in the story, and in about ten blinks 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Dr. Possum 35 


Tommie was fast asleep, and when he awakened 
he was all well. The rice pudding medicine had 
cured him. 

“Well, well!” exclaimed Dr. Possum when 
he heard Uncle Wiggily tell about Tommie’s 
case. “ I guess your medicine was better than 
all my pink, yellow and green pills. I’ll try 
some myself.” 

So Nurse Jane made a rice pudding for Dr. 
Possum, and soon he was well, and could look 
after the sick animals himself. 

So no more now, if you please, but if the rag 
doll’s umbrella doesn’t go out in the rain and get 
a pain in its ribs, I’ll tell you, in the follow- 
ing chapter, about Uncle Wiggily and Charlie 
Chick. 


CHAPTER IV 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND CHARLIE CHICK 

One day, oh, I guess maybe it was about a 
week after Uncle Wiggily had cured sick 
Tommie Kat by giving him the rice pudding 
medicine, the rabbit gentleman laid aside the 
paper he was reading, wiped his spectacles off 
on his left ear, and said: 

“ Well, I think I will go out for a little ride. 
It is a nice day, even if it is cold, and I might 
have an adventure. Who knows? ” 

“ If you are going out,” said Nurse Jane 
Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept 
house for the old gentleman rabbit, “ if you are 
going out, Wiggie, you might stop at the drug 
store and get me some court plaster.” 

“ Court plaster ! Why do you want that? ” 
he asked her, curious-like. 

“ Because I have a scratch on the end of my 
tail,” the muskrat lady answered, “ and if I put 
some court plaster on it I can keep out the dust, 
and my scratch will get well more quickly.” 

36 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie Chick 37 


“ Very good ! I’ll get you some,” promised 
Uncle Wiggily. 

Of he started in his auto and soon he was at 
the drug store. Nothing much happened on the 
way except that Uncle Wiggily saw some cold 
and hungry little birds trying to get for them- 
selves something to eat under the snow, but they 
could find nothing. So the rabbit gentleman 
bought them some cookie crumbs in a bakery, 
and the birds were very happy. Uncle Wiggily 
was happy, too. 

When he came out of the drug store with the 
court plaster for Nurse Jane, a monkey gentle- 
man who kept a grocery store next door called 
out to ask: 

“ Somebody sick at your house, Uncle Wig- 
gily, that you have to buy medicine? ” 

“ Oh, no ! Only Nurse Jane has scratched her 
tail and wants some court plaster to stick on 
to keep out the dust,” the rabbit gentleman 
said. 

“ That is too bad,” went on the grocery mon- 
key. “ There was a friend of yours in my store 
a little while ago.” 

“ A friend of mine? Who? ” asked Uncle 
Wiggily, curious-like. 

“ Charlie Chick. He came to get a bag of 


38 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


corn kernels, and his mother was in such a hurry 
for it that he carried it home himself.” 

“ Ha ! They must be hungry at the Chick 
house,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ I’ll hurry along 
and perhaps I can catch up to Charlie, and give 
him a ride in my auto, with his bag of corn.” 

“ I think he’d be glad to get it,” said the 
grocery monkey. “ The com was quite heavy.” 

Uncle Wiggily started off again making his 
auto go quite fast, so as to catch up to Charlie, 
before the little chicken boy got all the way 
home with the bag of com. 

“ It must be quite heavy to carry,” thought 
the rabbit gentleman, “ but Charlie is a brave, 
little chap. I’d like to help him, though.” 

Well, Uncle Wiggily went on and on, and 
pretty soon he came to the big duck pond. It 
was all frozen over, and, looking across it, 
Uncle Wiggily saw Charlie Chick in the middle 
of the pond, walking along with the bag of corn 
over his wing. 

“ I guess Charlie went across the frozen pond, 
as that is the shortest way home,” thought the 
rabbit gentleman. “ I’ll go in my auto that way, 
too, and give him a ride the rest of the trip. The 
ice will hold me up nicely.” 

Well, Uncle Wiggily steered his auto out on 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie Chick 39 


to the frozen pond, and he was going along 
nicely, when, all of a sudden something went : 

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” 

“ Oh, dear ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ There go my tires ! All four of them have 
burst. I guess the sharp ice has punctured 
holes in them ! ” 

And surely enough, that was exactly what 
had happened. The auto could not go any more 
on those tires, because all the wind was out of 
them. 

“ And I can’t help Charlie Chick carry home 
his bag of corn, either,” sadly went on the rabbit 
gentleman. “ Oh, dear ! ” 

He jumped out of his machine, and then, 
after seeing where some sharp icicles had made 
holes in the tires, Uncle Wiggily looked over to 
where he had noticed Charlie. 

And then he saw the little chicken boy pick- 
ing himself up off the ice, where he had fallen 
down. Charlie stood for a moment looking at 
the bag of corn, which had dropped off his back, 
ker-plunko! and then, as Uncle Wiggily saw 
him lift it up, the rabbit gentleman also heard 
Charlie cry out: 

“ Oh, dear! It’s leaking! It’s full of holes. 
I’ll never be able to carry it home.” 


40 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ My goodness ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Something must have happened to Charlie. 
I’ll go see.” 

Leaving his auto where it was on the ice, 
Uncle Wiggily hobbled along as best he could, 
on his red and white and blue striped barber 
pole crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had 
gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. 

“ What is it, Charlie? What has happened? ” 
asked Uncle Wiggily, his nose twinkling like a 
star on a frosty night. 

“ Why, I was coming along over the ice with 
this bag of corn on my shoulder,” said Charlie, 
“ when, all of a sudden, some one shot a gun be- 
hind me — Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! four 
times. I was so scared that I jumped, and then 
slipped and fell. The corn fell, too, and the bag 
struck on some sharp pieces of ice, and now it’s 
full of holes — I mean the bag is — and all the corn 
spills out when I lift it up. 

“ Oh, dear! I’ll never be able to get it home, 
and mamma is in a hurry for it to bake a cake for 
papa’s supper. Oh ! who was it that shot at me 
and scared me so? ” the little chicken boy asked. 

“ It was no one at all, Charlie,” said Uncle 
Wiggily. “ The noise you heard was the burst- 
ing of my auto tires, when I ran over the sharp 


Lncle Wiggily and Charlie Chick 41 


ice. My tires have holes in them just as your 
corn bag has. I am sorry, for I was hurrying 
along to help you.” 

“ Thank you, -very much,” said Charlie 
Chick, politely. “ I guess I need help all right. 
Look!” 

As he spoke he lifted up the bag of corn, and 
out ran the yellow kernels on the ice. There 
were half a dozen holes in the bag, and corn 
came out of every one. 

“ Well, I’ll see if I can’t help you,” said Uncle 
Wiggily. “ We will carry the bag between us, 
and I’ll hold my paws over as many holes as I 
can, and you hold your wings over as many holes 
as you can reach.” 

“ All right,” agreed Charlie. They lifted the 
bag between them, but my goodness me, sakes 
alive, and some molasses candy! All the corn 
seemed running out, for there were more holes 
than Uncle Wiggily and Charlie could cover, 
try as they did. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried the chicken boy. “ That 
will never do ! ” 

“ No, I can see that it will not,” spoke Uncle 
Wiggily. “ We could never carry the bag of 
corn home that way, for it would all run out. 
Let me see, now. It was partly my fault that 


42 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


my auto tires scared you, by going off like pop- 
guns. What can I do to help? 

“ I have it. The court plaster I bought for 
Nurse Jane! I will take some pieces of court 
plaster and stick them over the holes in the bag. 
Then the corn can’t run out and you and I can 
easily carry it home.” 

“ Oh, joy! ” cried Charlie Chick, flapping his 
wings and crowing. “ I don’t know what I 
would have done without you, Uncle Wiggily. 
You are very kind.” 

“ Pray, do not mention it,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily, sort of bashful-like. 

Quickly he took some of the court plaster he 
had bought for Nurse Jane, and soon the rabbit 
gentleman had pasted pieces of the sticky cloth 
over all the little holes in the bag. In a short 
while each one was plastered shut. 

“ Now let us try to lift the bag,” said Uncle 
Wiggily. 

So he and Charlie Chick lifted it between 
them, and this time not a single kernel of corn 
spilled out. 

“ Oh, good ! ” cried the chicken boy. “ Now 
I can get home in time for supper.” 

Then he and Uncle Wiggily put back in the 
bag the corn that had fallen out, and between 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie Chick 43 


them the rabbit gentleman and the little chicken 
boy carried the corn to Charlie’s home, and 
everybody was happy. 

Later that day, Uncle Wiggily put 6ome new 
tires on his auto and he was happy also, and, I’m 
not sure, but I think the automobile felt the same 
way. 

And now, in the next chapter, if the dentist 
doesn’t pull all the teeth out of the sidecomb, so 
it can’t take the kinks out of the rag doll’s hair, 
I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Arabella 
Chick. 


CHAPTER V 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND ARABELLA CHICK 

“ Well, where are you going to-day? ” asked 
Nurse Jane Fuzzy, the muskrat lady, of Uncle 
Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, for 
whom she kept house. “ It looks to me,” went 
on Nurse Jane, “ as though you were going out 
for a walk.” 

“ You have guessed rightly,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily, making a low bow and speaking the way 
some folks do in story-books. “ I am going for 
a walk, Nurse Jane, to see if it will help my 
rheumatism any.” 

“ Well,” went on the muskrat lady, as she 
polished the dishpan until it shone like a look- 
ing-glass, “ all I have to say is that I hope you 
don’t take cold, for it looks to me as if it were 
going to snow.” 

“ I’ll be careful,” promised Uncle Wiggily, 
as he started off with his red, white and blue 
striped barber-pole crutch that Nurse Jane had 
gnawed for him out of a piece of sugar cane. 

. 44 


Uncle Wiggily and Arabella Chick 45 


Oh, just listen to me ; would you ! I mean the 
crutch that helped Uncle Wiggily along was 
gnawed out of a cornstalk. That’s a little like 
sugar cane, anyhow. Gracious me, sakes alive, 
and some hot potatoes! If Uncle Wiggily’s 
crutch had been made out of sugar cane I guess 
he would have had to get a new one every day, 
for all the animal children would have been 
nibbling at its sweetness. 

“ Where are you going? That is, if you do 
not mind telling me,” went on Nurse Jane. 

“ Pray do not mention it. I am going over to 
see Mrs. Chick, the hen lady,” went on Uncle 
Wiggily. “ Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster 
gentleman, lives next door and I’m going to see 
if he doesn’t want to learn how to play Scotch 
checkers with me. Then, when Grandfather 
Goosey Gander, the goose gentleman, has the 
pip, or the epizootic, I can play with Mr. 
Doodle.” 

“Very good!” said Nurse Jane, and off 
started Uncle Wiggily. 

He had not gone very far before he came to 
the house where Mrs. Chick lived with Charlie 
and Arabella, her chicken children. Charley 
was not at home, as it happened, for he was slid- 
ing down hill with Johnnie and Billie Bushy- 


46 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


tail, the squirrels. But Arabella was there, and 
as Uncle Wiggily knocked on the door he heard 
the little chicken girl saying : 

“ Oh, but, mamma, I don’t want to go to the 
store! I want to stay home and play with mv 
dolls.” 

“ But I want you to go, Arabella, dear,” said 
Mrs. Chick. “ I need the corn bread for supper 
and you are the only one who can go for me. 
Come, now, be a nice little chicken, put on your 
things and go to the store ! ” 

“ Oh, dear! ” cried Arabella, and she made 
such a funny face, with her beak all twisted 
around, that even Uncle Wiggily had to laugh 
when he saw it. 

“ Oh, are you there, Uncle Wiggily? ” asked 
Arabella, when she saw the rabbit gentleman. 
“ How you surprised me ! ” 

“ And you surprise me, Arabella, not wanting 
to go to the store for your mamma,” said Uncle 
Wiggily, solemn-like. 

“ Oh, but I will go ! ” cried Arabella. “ I’m 
sorry I didn’t want to go, mamma. Only you 
know I was sewing a new dress for my walking 
doll, Harriett Letterbox Hairribbon, and I 
wanted to finish it. But I’ll go to the store.” 

Then Arabella smiled and she didn’t twist her 


Uncle Wiggily and Arabella Chick 47 


beak around and make a funny face any more. 
So putting on her warm jacket and hood, away 
she went to the store for the corn bread for 
supper. 

Uncle Wiggily visited a while with Mrs. 
Chick and said how nice it was to have a chicken 
like Arabella, who, though she might grumble a 
little bit now and then about running on errands, 
always did go finally, and with a smiling face, 
too, and not scowling and angry. 

“ Yes, Arabella is a good chick,” said her 
mamma. 

Well, Uncle Wiggily had a nice talk with Mr. 
Cock A. Doodle, the rooster, a little later, and 
Mr. Doodle said he would some time come and 
play Scotch checkers with the rabbit gentleman. 

“ But I must be getting back now,” said Uncle 
Wiggily, and after he had had a cup of hot carrot 
coffee with Mr. Doodle, for the weather was very 
cold, off the rabbit gentleman started on his way 
home. 

It was getting quite dark now and it was be- 
ginning to snow quite hard. Uncle Wiggily had 
been so interested talking to the rooster gentle- 
man that he had not noticed a snow storm com- 
ing. 

As the rabbit gentleman was passing the 


48 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Chick house, he saw Mrs. Chick out on the front 
porch looking up and down and across the 
frozen duck pond. 

“ What is the matter, Mrs. Chick? ” asked 
Uncle Wiggily, for the hen lady seemed quite 
anxious about something and her red comb, on 
the top of her head, stuck out from under her 
cap quite crooked-like. 

“Oh, I’m so worried about Arabella!” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Chick. “ She hasn’t come home 
from the store yet, and she’s been gone a long 
time. Charlie came home from the coasting hill, 
but he hadn’t seen anything of her. I’m afraid 
Arabella is lost and there’s going to be a bad 
storm.” 

“ Oh, don’t worry,” said Uncle Wiggily. 
“ We’ll find her. Where is Charlie? ” 

“ He has gone to see if Arabella has stopped 
to play with Susie Littletail, the rabbit, or Lulu 
or Alice Wibblewobble, the ducks. But it isn’t 
like her to do so without telling me. Oh, dear ! ” 
cried Mrs. Chick. 

“ Now, don’t you worry! ” said Uncle Wig- 
gily, kindly. “ We’ll find her. I’ll go get Mr. 
Cock A. Doodle and we’ll search all over.” 

So he got the rooster gentleman and off 
through the snow they went, looking for 


Uncle Wiggily and Arabella Chick 49 


Arabella. At the store, where she had been sent 
for the com bread, the jumping Jack clerk, who 
had waited on Arabella, said the chicken girl had 
started for her coop some time before. 

“ Something must have happened to her, on 
the way,” said Mr. Doodle. “Wait, and I’ll 
crow for her.” 

So he did, flapping his wings, while he stood 
up on a stump. 

“Arabella! Arabella! Chick! Chick! 
Chick! ” cried Mr. Doodle, in his loudest voice. 
“ Arabella Chick, where are you? ” 

But there was no answer. The wind only blew 
harder through the trees, and the white snow 
flakes came down faster and faster, covering 
from sight everything on the ground. 

“If we don’t find her pretty soon, she’ll be 
snowed under,” said Uncle Wiggily, sadly. 

“ Yes, that is so,” agreed Mr. Doodle. 

So they looked all over, here and there, but 
no Arabella could they find. Grandfather 
Goosey Gander came out and helped search. 
Charlie Chick, Arabella’s brother, called out all 
his boy animal friends and they tramped through 
the snow, searching. Mrs. Chick cried and 
feared she would never see Arabella again. 

“ Oh, yes you will ! ” said Uncle Wiggily, “ I 


50 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


have a plan. We will wind up Arabella’s walk- 
ing and talking doll. Perhaps Harriet Letter- 
box Hairribbon can find Arabella.” 

So they wound up the spring in the back of the 
walking doll and started her out in the storm to 
find the lost chicken girl. But the walking doll 
could not get through the snow drifts, which 
were now quite large. She was caught fast in 
one and the springs inside her went “ whirr ! 
whirr ! ” Then the walking doll, in her phono- 
graph voice, cried : “ Mamma ! Papa ! I’m 
hungry ! I’m sleepy ! ” 

After this there was nothing to do but to put 
her in the doll carriage, where she shut her eyes. 
But Arabella could not be found. Oh, how hard 
Mrs. Chick cried. They were just going to send 
for old Policeman Dog Percival, when a bark- 
ing and growling sound was heard outside the 
chicken coop house. 

“ Here is Percival now,” said Uncle Wiggily. 
But it was not. Instead it was Jackie and Peetie 
Bow Wow, the puppy boys. How they barked 
and frisked in the snow, for they loved to play 
in the drifts. 

“ But what makes everyone so sad? ” asked 
Peetie, when he and his brother saw the little 
crowd in front of Arabella’s house. 


Uncle Wiggily and Arabella Chick 51 


“ My sister is lost in the snow storm ! ” cried 
Charlie Chick. 

“ Lost? Nonsense! We will find her! ” ex- 
claimed Peetie. “ Come on, Jackie! ” 

Then those brave puppy dogs started off 
through the snow, tossing it aside with their 
strong paws and running with their noses close 
to the ground. They poked away the snow with 
their paws, for they wanted to smell on the bare 
ground, and so tell which way Arabella had 
gone, just as they smelled for bones hidden in the 
earth. 

They got to the store where Arabella had left 
and then they found where she had started for 
home. 

“ But she got off the path — she went the 
wrong way, over here! ” suddenly cried Jackie, 
as he found the chickie girl’s tracks under the 
white flakes. 

“ And here she is ! ” shouted Peetie, as he be- 
gan pawing at a pile of snow. And there, surely 
enough, under a big drift, was the lost Arabella. 
She had missed her way in the storm, had fallen 
down and hit her head on a stone, and was sense- 
less. And so she fell into a sort of sleep and the 
snow came and covered her up. No wonder 


52 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


they could not find her until Peetie and Jackie 
came along. 

Quickly they carried Arabella home and Dr. 
Possum was sent for. But the little chicken girl 
was not hurt — only cold, and soon she was all 
right again and very glad to be home. 

“ And I’ll never send you to the store so late 
again,” said Mrs. Chick. “ I am very sorry.” 

Then everybody thanked Uncle Wiggily, and 
Jackie and Peetie, too, and even the walking 
doll, who did the best she could, was also 
thanked. 

And in the next chapter, if the cream jug 
doesn’t step on the hot coffee pot’s toes and 
make it burn the sugar bowl, I’ll tell you about 
Uncle Wiggily and the school bell. 


CHAPTER VI 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SCHOOL BELL 

“ You are up early this morning,” said Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, to Uncle 
Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one 
day just before breakfast. 

“ Yes, I am going to take a long ride in my 
auto, so I thought I would get an early start,” 
replied Uncle Wiggily. “ Don’t you want to 
come and take a little trip with me? ” 

“ Mercy, no! ” exclaimed Nurse Jane. “ I 
have all my work to do ; the sweeping, the bak- 
ing, the mending and the dusting, to say noth- 
ing of making the beds. I am too busy to go. 
But you run along, and I hope nothing happens 
to you or your automobile.” 

“ I hope so myself,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, 
politely. Then he ate his breakfast of carrot 
pancakes, with cabbage gravy on, and went out. 

The rabbit gentleman had not ridden very 
far before he saw something big in the road 
ahead of him. At first he thought it might be 
53 


54 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Mr. Stubtail, the nice bear gentleman, but soon 
Uncle Wiggily noticed that it was a much 
larger animal than a bear. 

“ Why, it’s the good circus elephant ! ” ex- 
claimed the rabbit gentleman. “ I wonder what 
he is doing here? ” 

“I am crying — that’s what I’m doing,” said 
the elephant, turning around, for he had heard 
what Uncle Wiggily said. “ I am crying, can’t 
you see the tears? ” 

And, indeed, big, salty tears were running out 
of the elephant’s eyes, and down his trunk to 
the ground, where they fell with a splash, mak- 
ing little holes in the snow. 

“ Why are you crying? ” asked Uncle Wig- 
gily, kindly. 

“ Because I have a tack in my foot,” answered 
the elephant. “ I went in a carpet store to buy 
a new carpet for my dining room, and I stepped 
on a tack. And the tack is so small and my foot 
is so large and I can’t bend over very well, so I 
can’t see to pull it out. And, though it is a small 
tack, it hurts very much.” 

“ Perhaps I can get it out,” said the rabbit 
gentleman. “ I will take a look, Mr. Elephant.” 
So Uncle Wiggily looked and he easily saw the 
tack with his strong spectacles. Then, with his 


Uncle Wiggily and the School Bell 55 


sharp teeth, made for gnawing wood, Uncle 
Wiggily pulled the tack out of the elephant’s 
foot. 

“ Oh, thank you very much! ” cried the big 
creature, as he hurried off. “ I’ll be late for my 
dinner if I don’t make haste,” he called back. 
“ I’ll see you again,” and soon he was out of 
sight in the woods. 

Then Uncle Wiggily started off in his auto 
once more, and he saw a bundle lying in the 
snow beside the path. 

“ Hello ! ” exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. 
“ This must be something the elephant forgot. 
Never mind, I’ll keep it for him until I see him 
again.” 

So Uncle Wiggily put the package in his 
automobile, intending to give it to the elephant 
when next he met the big creature. Then the 
rabbit gentleman started off, wondering what 
sort of an adventure would happen to him this 
time. 

He had not gone very far before he came to 
a little red schoolhouse, built in a hollow stump 
beside the road. And in front of the school was 
the lady mouse school teacher, crying and look- 
ing very sad. 

“ Why, what is the matter? ” asked Uncle 


56 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Wiggily, kindly. “ Are some of your pupils 
bad that you cry so? ” 

“ Oh, no indeed, thank you,” answered the 
lady mouse school teacher. “ It is not quite 
time for school to begin this morning, so none 
of the children are here yet.” 

“ Then why do you cry? ” the rabbit gentle- 
man wanted to know. 

“ Oh, I’m afraid none of the children will 
come before it is too late,” went on the lady 
mouse. “ And I feel so badly when I think of 
any of my school children coming after nine 
o’clock that I have to cry! None of them has 
been late this year, so far, and I don’t want to 
start it now.” And she cried some more, not as 
hard as the elephant with the tack in his foot, but 
hard enough for a mousie lady. 

“ But why should you think they will be late 
this morning? ” asked Uncle Wiggily. “ Per- 
haps they will all come on time.” 

“ They can’t,” said the lady mouse school 
teacher. 

“ Why not? ” the rabbit gentleman wanted to 
know. 

“ Because the school bell is all frozen up, and 
I can’t ring it,” replied the lady mouse. “ It is 
all full of ice, that bell is, and not a sound comes 


Uncle Wiggiiy and the School Bell 57 


from it. And if the children don’t hear the bell 
ring they won’t know that it’s time to come to 
their classes, and they will all be late — hoo! 
hoo ! ” and she cried out loud. 

“ Well, that is too bad. Maybe I can help 
you,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “ First I will 
have a look at the bell.” 

He went inside the little red stump school- 
house, and pulled on the rope that rang the 
school bell to call the children to their lessons. 
But even the rope was frozen fast, for it was 
very cold that day. Freezing cold it was ! 

“ If I had hot water perhaps I could thaw out 
the frozen bell,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ But 
that would take too long.” 

“ Yes,” spoke the lady mouse school teacher, 
“ we have no time for that. It is nearly nine 
o’clock now. Oh, what shall I do? ” 

“ Leave it to me ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ I 
will go outside and blow my automobile horn. 
The children will hear that and come to school.” 

“ Please do ! ” cried the lady mouse. So 
Uncle Wiggily went out to his auto. 

“ Honk! Honk! Honk! ” he blew on his 
auto horn, but, though he and the teacher mouse 
watched for some time, not a pupil came. You 
see, they were all waiting to hear the school 


58 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


bell ring, for they paid more attention to that 
than they did to the clocks in their own 
houses. 

“ Oh, I am sure they are going to be late ! ” 
cried the lady mouse school teacher. “ Oh, 
how sad ! ” 

“ Wait! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ I have an- 
other plan. Here is a cow coming along the 
road. I will ask her to cry ‘ Moo ! ’ and when the 
children hear that they will come to school.” 

The cow said she would kindly do her best. 
So she went : 

“ Moo ! Moo ! Moo ! ” as loudly as she 
could, but still no children came to school, and 
it was almost nine o’clock. 

“ Oh, dear! ” cried the lady mouse. 

“One plan more!” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Here comes old Dog PercivaL I will ask him 
to bark for the children.” 

So Percival kindly barked as loudly as he 
could, making his voice sound as much like a 
bell as possible, which wasn’t very much. Still 
no children came to school, and it was nearer 
nine o’clock than before. 

Then Grandfather Goosey Gander, the duck 
gentleman, came along, and he went “ Quack! 
Quack! ” but the animal children did not notice 


Uncle Wiggily and the School Bell 59 


that. They were used to a bell, and without 
hearing that they would not come to their 
classes. 

Uncle Wiggily tried everything he could 
think of, even asking a choo-choo locomotive 
to whistle, but that brought no children to the 
school. 

Well, the clock was almost striking nine, and 
the lady mouse school teacher was sure all her 
pupils would get bad marks for being late, 
when, all of a sudden, along came rushing the 
elephant from whose foot Uncle Wiggily had 
pulled the tack. 

“ Excuse me,” said the elephant, “ but did I 
leave a package back there, on the road, Uncle 
Wiggily?” 

“ You did,” answered the rabbit gentleman. 
“ Here it is,” and he handed it to the elephant 
from the auto. 

“ But why is the lady mouse crying? ” asked 
the big elephant, curious-like. 

“ Because the school bell is frozen and won’t 
ring, and she is afraid all the animal children 
will be late,” explained Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Ha! Then I can help you! ” cried the ele- 
phant. “ See, in this bundle, I have a new dinner 
bell that I bought for my supper! I will ring 


60 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


that, and it will make as much noise as the 
school bell, and no one will be late.” 

“ Oh, joy ! ” cried the lady mouse school 
teacher. 

Then the elephant took the big dinner bell out 
of the paper box, and he rang that bell with his 
trunk as loudly as ever the school bell had rung. 

“Ding-dong!” Ding-dong! Ding-dong!” 
went the elephant’s dinner bell. 

And then, just before the clock struck nine, 
out of their homes came running all the school 
animal children. Louder rang the elephant’s 
bell, faster came the children, and, just as the last 
stroke of nine sounded on the clock, every pupil 
was in his or her seat, and not a one was late! 

“ Oh, thank you very much — both of you ! ” 
cried the lady mouse, throwing a kiss to Uncle 
Wiggily, and two to the elephant because he 
was so large. Then school began, and that noon 
the warm sun thawed out the frozen bell so there 
was no more trouble that day. 

And, in the chapter after this one, if the trolley 
conductor lets the rag doll ride up on top of the 
car so she can see the stars twinkle, I’ll tell you 
about Uncle Wiggily and Charlie Chick’s auto. 


CHAPTER VII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND CHARLIE’S AUTO 

One day, Arabella, the little chicken girl, did 
not feel very well as she arose from her bed in the 
clean straw to go to school. When she was 
combing smooth her feathers, and getting out a 
nice ribbon for her tail, Charlie, Arabella’s 
brother, looked at her and exclaimed : 

“ Why, Arabella ! You’re all covered with red 
spots ! ” 

“ What’s that? ” asked Mrs. Chick, who was 
picking up the breakfast dishes. 

“ Oh, ma ! ” exclaimed Charlie. “ Arabella is 
all covered with red spots.” 

Mrs. Chick came quickly over to look at her 
little daughter. 

“ Why, so she is ! ” exclaimed the chicken lady. 
“ It must be the measles or the chickenpox. I 
guess it’s the chickenpox.” 

“ Do I have to go to school, ma? ” asked 
Arabella. “ I don’t feel very well.” 

“ Indeed you don’t have to go,” said Mrs. 

61 


62 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Chick. “ You may stay home. Of course 
measles or chickenpox isn’t serious, and you 
may have caught it the day you were lost in the 
snow-drift. But you must stay in and keep 
warm.” 

Charlie Chick hurried about the coop, look- 
ing for his books, and whistling through his 
beak. 

“ Where are you going? ” asked his mamma. 

“ To school,” replied Charlie, surprised-like, 
that his mamma should ask such a question. 

“ Oh, no, you’re not going to school,” spoke 
Mrs. Chick. “ You will probably have the 
chickenpox too, and I don’t want you to go 
out with that coming on, and catch cold. Be- 
sides, you might take the sickness to some one at 
school and that would not be fair.” 

“ But I don’t want to stay home ! ” cried 
Charlie. “ I was going to build a snow fort after 
school, with Sammie Littletail, the rabbit, and 
Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. I 
want to go ! ” 

“No,” said his mamma. “You must stay 
home and you can help amuse Arabella. She 
will be lonesome, poor little girl, and it is no fun 
to be lonesome and ill.” 

Now I am sorry to say that Charlie did not 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie’s Auto 63 


behave very nicely. I wish I could say so, but 
you know I have to tell things in these stories 
exactly as they happened, or else I will not be 
allowed to write any more. 

So Charlie, instead of being good-natured 
about it, stuck his tail feathers all out crooked 
and sideways and he said : 

“ Hu ! I don’t want to stay home ! I’m not 
sick! The idea of staying home and playing 
girls’ games.” 

“ Now, Charlie, you know that isn’t right,” 
said Mrs. Chick. “ Won’t you try and be 
pleasant? ” 

But Charlie wouldn’t. He just sulked and 
pouted and he stuck out his feathers more than 
ever, and when Arabella said to him: “Won’t 
you try to amuse me, Charlie? I don’t feel 
good! ” Charlie answered: 

“ I’m not going to play girls’ games. Play 
with your own dolls.” 

Well, I’m not going to tell you what I think 
of Charlie. It will be a secret. 

So nine o’clock came, the bell rang, and the 
other animal children went on to school, but 
Charlie and Arabella Chick stayed home. More 
red spots broke out on Arabella, and then one or 
two on Charlie. 


64 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“You’re getting the chickenpox, too!” ex- 
claimed his sister. “ Aren’t you glad you stayed 
home, Charlie? ” 

“ No, I’m not,” he said, real cross-like. 

“ I — I’ll play some of your boy games, if you 
want me to,” said poor sick little Arabella, and 
the tears came into her eyes. “ W on’t you please 
amuse me, Charlie? ” 

“ No ! ” said Charlie, and he stuck out his tail 
feathers worse than ever, just as some boys ruffle 
up their hair. 

And just then, into the chicken coop came 
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentle- 
man. 

“Well, well!” he exclaimed when he saw 
Charlie and Arabella. “ What does this mean? 
No school?” 

“ They both have the chickenpox,” explained 
Mrs. Chick. “ I hope you have had it, Uncle 
Wiggily.” 

“ Oh, yes, I’m not afraid of it! ” laughed the 
rabbit gentleman, making his nose twinkle like 
an ice cream cone. “ Well, Mrs. Chick, you go 
on with your work, I’ll amuse Charlie and 
Arabella a bit.” 

I wonder if Uncle Wiggily knew about 
Charlie not wanting to play with his sister? If 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie’s Auto 65 


the old gentleman rabbit did he said nothing 
about it. Instead he just hummed a little song to 
himself, and he looked around and remarked : 

“ Charlie, I think I will show you how to make 
an automobile, and then you can take Arabella 
out for a ride.” 

“ Oh, but I can’t go, Uncle Wiggily! ” cried 
Arabella. “ I have to stay in with the chicken- 
pox, or it might get worse.” 

“ Oh, I didn’t mean really to go out,” laughed 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I only meant make believe. 
Come, Charlie, now to make your auto. Ara- 
bella, you get your dolls ready for a ride in 
Charlie’s new automobile.” 

“ All right ! ” laughed the little chicken girl. 
Even Charlie was not so cross or grumpy now. 
He was sorry he hadn’t played with Arabella be- 
fore. 

“ First, we want two chairs,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily. “ We’ll take this little, low, willow rocking 
chair for the back part of the auto, and we’ll turn 
this dining room chair down on its side, with the 
back up, for the front part. So ! ” 

He did that. Then on the back of the over- 
turned dining room chair he put a black, oil- 
cloth-covered waste-paper basket, so that it 
looked just like the part of an automobile where 


66 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


the motor “ choo-choo ” engine stays to keep out 
of the rain. 

“Now for wheels!” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“ What shall I do for wheels? I know ; big, 
round tin pie plates! ” 

Out in the kichen he got the round, shiny pie 
tins, and when they were stood up on edge on the 
floor, one at each corner of the auto, really it 
looked just as if the queer machine could run 
right out of the window on to the front porch. 

“ Now for a steering wheel ! ” cried the rabbit 
gentleman. The round, flat board, in which 
Mrs. Chick used to cut the corn bread for 
dinner, made as nice a steering wheel as you 
could wish. 

“ Is the auto going to have a * honk-hank ’ 
horn on it? ” asked Charlie. 

“ To be sure it is! cried Uncle Wiggily. Up 
in the attic he found a last year’s Christmas 
horn. It was rather battered and bent, but when 
Charlie blew on it, why, it sounded more like a 
real auto horn than you would imagine. 

“ This will be the brake handle, to pull on 
when you want to stop,” said Uncle Wiggily, 
as he stuck the yard stick down between the legs 
of the chair. “ And now for some seat-cushions 
and your auto is finished. You sit on the front 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie’s Auto 67 


chair, and steer and blow the horn, and Arabella 
will ride in back with her dolls.” 

Well, soon the cushions were in place and 
Charlie was smiling now, instead of making his 
tail feathers stick out, crooked-like. 

“ Come on, Arabella ! ” he called. “ Come 
for a ride in my auto ! ” 

But no Arabella was to be seen. 

“ She was here a moment ago, when you and 
I went up in the attic to get the old horn,” said 
Uncle Wiggily, looking all around. 

“ Maybe she went out in the kitchen to get a 
piece of cake,” said Charlie. He and the rabbit 
gentleman hurried out there, but no Arabella 
was to be seen. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Mrs. Chick, when they 
told her about Arabella being missing. “ I am 
afraid she is out of her head from the chicken- 
pox, and she may have run out in the snow. Oh 
dear!” 

“ Don’t worry ! ” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. 
“ We’ll find her.” 

But though he and Mrs. Chick and Charlie 
looked all over, they could not discover Ara- 
bella. 

“ I guess we’ll have to send for a policeman to 
find her,” cried Mrs. Chick. 


68 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Poor Charlie did not know what to do. He 
was sorry, now, that he had not played with his 
sister at first. Charlie sat down on his make- 
believe automobile, that Uncle Wiggily had 
made for him, but the little chicken boy did not 
care for it now. He turned the steering wheel, 
this way and that, and pretended to put on the 
brake, but, all the while he was wondering 
what had become of Arabella. 

And then, just as Uncle Wiggily was going to 
call on the telephone for a kind policeman dog 
to come, Charlie looked in the wastepaper 
basket, that was part of his auto, and there, fast 
asleep with her doll, Mary Jane Ticklefeather, 
was Arabella Chick herself. 

“ Oh, here she is ! ” cried Charlie, in delight. 
“ How did you get there? ” 

“ I flew in,” said Arabella, rubbing her eyes. 
“ I got tired of waiting for you and Uncle Wig- 
gily to give me a ride in the new auto, so I got in 
it myself. And I guess I fell asleep.” 

“ I guess you did,” laughed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ But that is not the place for passengers, Ara- 
bella. Get in the little cushioned chair behind. 
You are in the engine there.” 

So Arabella got in the proper seat, and Charlie 
ran his auto all over, and up to the Orange moun- 


Uncle Wiggily and Charlie’s Auto 69 


tains (make believe, of course) and he and Ara- 
bella had lots of fun. And in a few days both 
of them were over the chickenpox and could go 
to school. 

And in the next chapter, if the peaches and 
cream don’t jump out of the apple pie and go to 
a moving picture show with the lemon squeezer, 
I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the kind 
barber. 


CHAPTER VIII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BARBER 

One day, when Uncle Wiggily Longears, the 
rabbit gentleman, was starting out for a ride in 
his automobile, with the turnip steering wheel 
that he could nibble at when he was hungry, Miss 
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady who 
kept house for him, said : 

“ Why are you taking your crutch along, 
Uncle Wiggily ; your rheumatism crutch? You 
won’t need it when you are in the automobile.” 

“ Oh, you never can tell,” answered the rabbit 
gentleman. “ I might want to get out and walk 
for a while, or I might meet Grandfather Goosey 
Gander, and if he was feeling sad I could tickle 
him in the ribs with my crutch, and make the 
old goose gentleman laugh.” 

“ Well, you certainly are a funny rabbit,” 
spoke Nurse Jane, with a laugh. “ You will 
have your joke.” 

So away went Uncle Wiggily in his auto, with 
70 


Uncle Wiggily and the Barber 71 


the red, white and blue striped barber pole 
crutch standing up on the seat beside him. The 
rabbit gentleman rode on and on, and pretty 
soon he came to a place where there was a little 
shop, made from corn-cobs. And in front of 
the corn-cob shop was a nice monkey gentle- 
man, and a little poodle dog. And the poodle 
dog was singing a song that went something like 
this: 


“ Barber, barber, shave a pig. 

How many hairs will make a wig? 

Four and twenty — that’s enough, 

Give the barber a pinch of snuff.” 

“ Very good! Very good! ” cried the barber 
monkey, as he came out of his shop, wearing a 
white apron, and carrying a pair of scissors in 
one paw and a shaving mug, full of white, soapy 
lather, in the other. “ Very good, little poodle 
dog!” exclaimed the barber monkey. “But 
where is my pinch of snuff? ” 

“ Here,” answered the dog, giving it to the 
barber monkey. Then the monkey sneezed 
three times, and right after that he cut the little 
poodle dog’s hair, leaving a fluffy tuft on the end 
of his tail, and ruffles on his legs and a lot of 


72 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


fluffy hair around the doggie’s neck, until he 
looked just like the toy lion in the circus. 

“ There you are, doggie,” said the barber 
monkey. “ Now you have a nice hair-cut. 
Twenty-five barks, if you please.” 

“ Oh, my mamma will pay you ! ” cried the 
little doggie as he gave a jump up in the air. 
And then, before the barber monkey could stop 
him, that mischievous little poodle just pulled 
up the barber’s pole and away he ran down 
the street with it, just like Tom, the piper’s 
son. 

“ Here, come back with my pole if you 
please ! ” cried the monkey barber. “ If I don’t 
have a red, white and blue pole out in front of my 
place, no one will know this is a barber shop! 
Come back, I beg of you ! ” 

But the poodle doggie only ran on the faster, 
and soon he was out of sight around the corner, 
while the monkey barber danced up and down in 
front of his shop, real excited-like. 

“ That’s too bad ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Shall I chase after that dog for you in my auto, 
and bring back your barber pole? ” 

“ No, thank you,” spoke the barber monkey. 
“ That little doggie is not bad. He just likes to 
play tricks on me, that’s all. This is the third 


Uncle Wiggily and the Barber 73 


time he has taken away my red, white and blue 
pole. But this time I am really sorry, for unless 
I have it out in front of my shop the pig will not 
know the place when he comes marching by, and 
I can’t shave him and make a wig. He’ll go to 
some other shop where there is a pole, and I’ll 
lose his money. Oh, dear ! ” 

“ Say no more ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily in a 
jolly voice. “ I have the very thing for you. I 
will let you take my red, white and blue striped 
barber pole crutch, and you can put that out in 
front of your shop until the poodle dog brings 
back the one he took.” 

“ Oh, you are very kind, Uncle Wiggily,” 
spoke the barber, “ but won’t you need the 
crutch yourself? You have the rheumatism, you 
know.” 

“ Yes, but it is not bad to-day. Besides, I am 
in my auto, and I can ride home and get Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy to gnaw for me another 
crutch out of a cornstalk. Here, you take this 
one, the rabbit gentleman said.” 

“ All right, thank you kindly, I will,” agreed 
the barber monkey. Then he stuck Uncle Wig- 
gily’s crutch up in front of the shop, and it 
looked so like a real pole that when the pig, who 


74 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


wanted to be shaved, came past, he knew at once 
where to go. 

“ You have been very good to me, Uncle Wig- 
gily,” said the barber monkey, as he began to 
shave the pig. “ And some day I will be kind to 
you.” 

And he did not know how soon he would have 
a chance to be kind to Uncle Wiggily. 

Well, the old gentleman rabbit went home, and 
when he told Nurse Jane what he had done with 
his crutch she said he had acted just right. She 
soon gnawed him another one out of a cornstalk, 
and Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, colored 
it red, white and blue with Easter egg dyes, so 
Uncle Wiggily was as well off as ever. 

A day or so after this the old rabbit gentleman 
was out walking, and he came to a place where 
some rat gentlemen were putting a new roof on 
their hollow stump house. The rats had a big 
kettle full of warm, black tar, and they would 
spread this out thin, and then sprinkle little white 
gravel stones on top of the tar to make a roof. 
I guess you’ve seen it done, haven’t you? 

“ Ha! This is very interesting! ” exclaimed 
Uncle Wiggily, as he came up to the place. “ I 
must look into this.” 

Then he went to peep into the kettle of warm 


Uncle Wiggily and the Barber 75 


melted tar, and the first thing he knew his paws 
slipped and right into the sticky black stuff he 
fell. 

“Ouch! Oh, dear! This is terrible. Help! 
Help ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. Luckily he had 
not fallen in head first, and so his head was out 
of the tar. But the black stuff came up to his 
shoulders. 

“ Quick ! ” kindly cried the biggest rat of them 
all. “ We must help Uncle Wiggily out of the 
tar.” 

Then, with their sticks, they lifted poor Uncle 
Wiggily out of the tar-kettle. Oh ! but he was a 
dreadful sight. He was as black as a lump of 
coal and as sticky as the cork of a molasses 
jug. 

“ Quick! Send for Dr. Possum! ” he called. 
But before they could do that something else 
happened. 

Along the street came Jimmie Wibblewobble, 
the boy duck, with a bagful of geese feathers 
over his back. He was taking them to Mrs. 
Bushytail, the squirrel lady, who was to make 
them into a sofa pillow. 

But when Jimmie came to where Uncle Wig- 
gily stood, all covered with tar, the little boy 
duck was so surprised and kerslostrated — if you 


76 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


will kindly allow me to use that word — Jimmie 
was so surprised that he dropped the bag of 
feathers. 

In an instant the wind blew the bag open, and 
scattered out the feathers, and, what is worse, the 
wind blew them all over Uncle Wiggily. On 
the warm, sticky black tar the feathers blew, and 
there they stuck, so that Uncle Wiggily looked 
like a chicken turned upside down. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ This is terrible.” 

Just then along came Susie Littletail, the 
rabbit girl. 

“ Oh ! ” she cried. “ Who is that funny look- 
ing animal? ” 

“ Don’t you know me? ” asked Uncle Wig- 
gily, sadly. 

“ No,” answered Susie, “ I don’t know you. 
You sound like my uncle, but you don’t look like 
him.” 

“ See how it is ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, sor- 
rowfully. “ None of my friends will ever speak 
to me any more ! ” 

“ Oh, yes, they will,” said one of the rats. 
“ We’ll pull the feathers off you, and scrape off 
the tar.” But when they tried to do this they 
pulled out Uncle Wiggily’s fur besides the 


Uncle Wiggily and the Barber 77 


feathers, and hurt him so much that he cried out 
to them to stop. 

“ Oh, what shall I ever do to look like my- 
self? ” he asked. 

“ Ha ! I can soon fix you ! ” exclaimed a voice, 
and there stood the barber monkey with his 
scissors, and his shaving mug of white, soapy 
lather. “ I will shave the tar and feathers off 
you, Uncle Wiggily,” went on the barber. 
“ You were so kind to lend me your crutch for 
my pole, that I want to be kind to you.” 

“ Then please shave me ! ” cried the rabbit 
gentleman. 'And the monkey barber did, care- 
fully lathering Uncle Wiggily, and then shav- 
ing off the tar and feathers as nicely as you 
please. 

And, when he had finished, Uncle Wiggily 
was just like himself, only his fur was a little 
shorter where the monkey had cut it off. But 
that did not matter, as it would soon grow out 
again. 

So that’s how the kind barber monkey shaved 
Uncle Wiggily, and the rabbit gentleman never 
looked into a tar-kettle again. And soon the 
little poodle doggie brought back the monkey 
barber’s pole, and everybody was happy. 


78 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


So, if the water pitcher doesn’t drink all the 
lemonade out of the molasses cruet and slide 
down hill on the butter dish, I’ll tell you next 
about Uncle Wiggily and the lost thimble. 


CHAPTER IX 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIMBLE 

One day it was raining in animal land where 
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, 
lived. Down came the wet drops out of the 
sky, splashing on the window panes of the hol- 
low stump houses and running right down the 
middle of the street like little rivers. 

Uncle Wiggily, who was now all better from 
having fallen into the tar-kettle, got down his 
rubber coat from the hat-rack. 

“What!” exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy 
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept house for 
Uncle Wiggily. “ You don’t mean to tell me 
that you are going out in this rain storm, Mr. 
Longears. And with your rheumatism! ” 

“ I didn’t tell you so, no,” answered Uncle 
Wiggily, with a polite bow, “ but I am going out, 
all the same. My rheumatism is not very pain- 
ful of late. In fact, I think the warm tar helped 
it. And I will wear my rubber coat.” 

“ Well, I will have some hot carrot and cab- 
79 


80 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


bage soup ready for you when you come in,” 
went on Nurse Jane. “ You may be cold.” 

“ Thank you very kindly,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily, with a very low polite bow. Then he started 
off in his auto, wearing his rubber coat so no 
rain would wet him. 

The rain kept on coming down. Uncle Wig- 
gily splashed through the puddles with his big 
auto wheels, and did not mind the water a bit, 
for he was nice and dry. Pretty soon he came 
to the house where Tommie, Joie and Kittie 
Kat lived. He was going past, waving his hand 
and making a second polite bow, when he hap- 
pened to see the three kitten children with their 
noses pressed flat against the window panes, star- 
ing out into the storm. 

“ Now, perhaps I had better go in and see 
them,” remarked Uncle Wiggily to himself. 
“ They don’t look very happy, that’s certain, and 
perhaps I can cheer them up.” 

So into the Kat family’s house he went, and, 
no sooner had he entered, than he heard Kittie 
sigh! 

“ Oh, dear! ” 

“Oh, me! Oh, my! ” cried Joie Kat. 

“ Isn’t it terrible ! ” exclaimed Tommie Kat. 

“ Hoity-toitie ! ” laughed Uncle Wiggily. 


Uncle Wiggily and the Thimble 81 


“ What’s all this about? Why are you so sad? ” 

“ Because we can’t go out and play on account 
of the rain,” answered Kittie. “ And we have 
nothing to do.” 

“Oh, such children!” exclaimed Mrs. Kat. 
“ I wish you could amuse them, Uncle Wiggily, 
while I finish this bit of sewing. I am making 
Kittie a dress.” 

“ Oh, can you stay and play with us, Uncle 
Wiggily? ” asked Joie. 

“ Yes, I guess so,” answered Uncle Wiggily, 
good-naturedly. “We will think up some games 
to play.” 

So he showed the Kat children how to make 
an automobile out of some chairs, a waste-paper 
basket and some pie tins, and also how to make a 
steam-boat out of a big folding porch chair, and 
even how to make an airship out of the fire shovel 
and the dusting brush. 

Those were very fine games, and the kitten 
children played them for some time with Uncle 
Wiggily. Finally Kittie went out in the sitting- 
room, where her mamma had been sewing, and 
she saw that Mrs. Kat had gone to the kitchen 
to bake a cake. 

“ Mamma,” said Kittie, “ may we take your 
thimble for a while to play with? ” 


82 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ What sort of a game can you play with a 
thimble? ” asked Mrs. Kat, as she mixed some 
chocolate and sugar up in a dish to spread on top 
of the cake. 

“ Oh, we are going to take turns hiding it,” ex- 
plained Kittie, “ and whoever finds it first has the 
next chance. Hiding the thimble is a nice 
game, Uncle Wiggily says.” 

“ I guess you’ll keep your Uncle Wiggily busy 
playing games,” laughed Mrs. Kat. “ Yes, take 
the thimble, but be sure to put it back when you 
are through.” 

“ Yes, mamma,” promised Kittie. 

So she and her brothers and Uncle Wiggily 
had lots of fun playing hide the thimble. And 
once, when it was the rabbit gentleman’s turn he 
hid it right on top of one of his ears and kept 
very still, and it was a long while before Kittie 
thought of looking there for it. 

Well, they got tired of that game, as all chil- 
dren do after a time, and thought of something 
new. Pretty soon Mrs. Kat came in from the 
kitchen to finish sewing on Kittie’s dress. 

“ Where is my thimble? ” she called to her 
little girl. “ Did you bring it back? ” 

“ Oh, yes, mamma,” answered Kittie. “ I left 
it right by your needle and spool of thread.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Thimble 83 


“ But it isn’t here now,” went on Mrs. Kat, 
looking under the table, thinking the thimble 
might have fallen off and rolled there. But the 
thimble, which is a thing you push a needle 
through cloth with, could not be found. Kittie 
was sure she had put it on the table, and Joie 
and Tommie, as well as Uncle Wiggily, had seen 
her. So there could be no mistake. 

“ Then it must be lost,” said Mrs. Kat. “ But 
how could my thimble be lost when no one was 
here to take it? That is very strange.” 

“ It is, indeed,” agreed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Maybe some little fairy slipped in and bor- 
rowed your thimble to use in sewing her dress 
for the dewdrop ball,” and the rabbit gentleman 
laughed. 

“ Oh, could that really happen? ” asked 
Kitty Kat, her eyes shining like a new dish- 
pan. 

‘‘ Of course it might,” answered Uncle Wig- 
gily. “ Mind, I’m not saying for sure, but 
maybe.” 

“ Well, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to bother the 
fairies,” said Mrs. Kat, “ but I would like my 
thimble back.” 

“ Then we must all hunt for it,” said Uncle 
Wiggily. “ Come, children, this time it will be 


84 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


a real game that we will play. Your mamma’s 
thimble is lost, and we must find it.” 

Well, they looked all over — on the piano, in 
the sewing machine drawers, down the horn of 
the phonograph — everywhere — but no thimble 
could they find. 

“ It is very strange,” said Mrs. Kat. “ Some 
one must have come in here and taken my 
thimble when no one was looking. But where 
did they put it? ” 

No one could tell, however. But they 
searched still farther, in all sorts of places, and 
the thimble was not found. 

“ It is too bad ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Kat. “ Un- 
less I find the thimble I cannot finish Kittie’s 
dress.” 

“ Can’t you sew without a thimble? ” asked 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I could lend you a penny to 
push the needle through with.” 

“ No, I must have my thimble ! ” said the Kat 
lady. But they could not find it for her. Nor 
could they tell who had taken it. 

All at once, as they were looking out in the 
kitchen, thinking the thimble might have rolled 
out there, they heard a knocking sound through- 
out the house. 

“ Tat-a-tat-tat ! ” it went. 


Uncle Wiggily and the Thimble 85 


“ Some one is at the front door ! ” cried Tom- 
mie Kat. 

Uncle Wiggily looked, but no one was there. 
Then the knocking sounded again. 

“ Some one is at the back door! ” cried Joie 
Kat. Uncle Wiggily looked, but no. one was 
there. Still the knocking kept up and this time 
it sounded all over the house. Sometimes it 
would be in the parlor walls and again in the 
dining-room. Then it would be upstairs and 
again in the parlor. 

“ Oh, it is certainly fairies ! ” cried Kittie Kat. 

Uncle Wiggily said nothing. He just kept 
listening, and then, all of a sudden, he went to a 
little hole in the wall of the sitting-room, near the 
floor, and he called : 

“ Come out ! I see you and I’ll help you ! ” 

And then out came a little mousie girl, with the 
lost thimble so tightly fastened over her nose 
that she couldn’t get it off. 

“ Was that you running around through the 
house, banging the thimble on the floors and 
walls and making the rapping sounds? ” asked 
Uncle Wiggily, as he carefully took the thimble 
off the mousie’s nose. 

“ Yes,” said the mouse, “ it was, and I am sorry 
if I frightened you. A little while ago I came 


86 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


in the sitting-room, very softly, when no one was 
there. I saw the thimble on the table and think- 
ing it had in it something good to eat, I put my 
nose down in hard. Then it stuck there. I could 
not get the thimble off, and I was so frightened! 
I ran back in my hole, and scrambled all over, 
trying to get the thimble off. Oh ! I am so glad 
you saw me and helped me, Uncle Wiggily.” 

“ So am I,” said the rabbit gentleman. “ I just 
saw you passing by that hole, and I thought per- 
haps you had the thimble. Now, Mrs. Kat, you 
may finish sewing Kittie’s dress.” 

And the kitten’s mamma did, and the mousie 
was given some nice cheese crumbs, and then it 
stopped raining and the little cats could go out 
and play, so every one was happy. 

“ But, oh ! ” said Kittie that night, as she went 
to bed, “ I do wish it had been fairies in the house, 
instead of a mousie with a thimble on her nose, 
making those noises.” 

But we can’t have everything we want, you 
know. 

And on the next page, in case the clothes 
wringer doesn’t pinch the rag doll’s tail and 
make her cry, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily 
and the valentines. 


CHAPTER X 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE VALENTINES 

There was much excitement in animal land, 
where the rabbits, squirrels, doggies, kitties 
and all the friends of Uncle Wiggily Longears 
lived. Such goings-on as there were! My 
goodness ! 

Susie Littletail and Jennie Chipmunk were 
seen sliding along behind a stump fence, hold- 
ing something tightly in their paws. 

“Now don’t you ever tell I sent it!” ex- 
claimed Susie in a whisper, while she made her 
nose twinkle. 

“ I never will! ” promised Jennie Chipmunk. 
“ And don’t you tell that I sent him one, will 
you?” And she looked at the pretty stripes 
running up and down her back to see if they 
were on straight. 

“ Of course not ! ” exclaimed Susie Littletail, 
the rabbit girl. “ I’ll never tell ! ” 

Pretty soon, around the corner by the old 
87 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


hollow log where Mr. Stubtail, the nice bear 
gentleman, took his long winter sleep, came 
Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls. 
Lulu had something in a large white en- 
velope. 

“ I hope he’ll like this one,” she said to her 
sister. 

“ Oh, I know he will ! ” said Alice. “ It’s such 
a pretty one ! ” 

“ Oh, yours is pretty, too ! ” said Lulu. “ Now 
after it gets dark we’ll slip them under his door, 
ring the bell and run away.” 

“ Ha ! What is this? ” suddenly asked a voice 
from behind a pile of stones, and Lulu and Alice 
jumped so quickly that each lost a feather out of 
their curly duck tails. But it didn’t much 
matter, for the feathers were loose and would 
soon have fallen out anyhow. 

“ My ! Who’s that? ” whispered Lulu. 

“ I — I don’t know ! ” exclaimed Alice. 

But they need not have been afraid, for it was 
only Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boy. 

“ Whom are you talking about? ” asked 
Jackie, as he came out, wagging his tail. “ Is it 
a secret? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Lulu, “ but I guess we can 
tell you. You see, to-day is St. Valentine’s Day, 


Uncle Wiggily and the Valentines 89 


and we are each going to send Uncle Wiggily 
a valentine, to show how much we love him. I 
have mine, and Lulu has hers, and ” 

“ Say no more! ” cried Jackie. “ I’ll get him 
one, too, and so will my brother Peetie.” And 
off he ran, wagging his tail. 

“ Get nice ones — none of those horrid comic 
ones! ” Lulu called after him. 

“ I will,” promised Jackie. 

Oh ! Such goings-on as there were in animal 
land! 

It seemed that all the animal boys and girls 
had some secret. They hurried here and there, 
carrying envelopes in their paws, whispering 
one to the other. They could hardly wait for 
night to come. 

But finally it grew dark, and then, one after 
another, Sammie and Susie Littletail, and 
Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and Charlie and 
Arabella Chick, and Tommie, Joie and Kittie 
Kat, and all the animal children slipped softly 
out of their houses, and went on the tips of their 
paws to the hollow stump where Uncle Wiggily 
lived. 

One after another they crept up, laid their 
valentines on the step, and ran to hide. Of 
course Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat 


90 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


lady, would answer the bell. She picked up the 
first valentine. 

“ My, what is this? ” she said, pretending she 
didn’t know, and taking it in to Uncle Wig- 
gily. 

“ Ha ! Hum ! Dear me suz dud ! ” exclaimed 
the rabbit gentleman, looking over the tops of 
his spectacles. “ I guess I’d better open it and 
see.” 

So he opened the envelope, and there was a 
most lovely valentine, all pink lace paper, with a 
golden heart and a bunch of roses, and a little 
boy with a bow and arrow, and there was a 
verse which said: 

“ Uncle Wiggily, I love you ! 

Just like a cabbage colored blue. 

If you should see a green poll parrot, 

I’ll send to you a yellow carrot ! ” 

“ My goodness me sakes alive ! How 
clever ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ I wonder who 
could have sent it? There is no name on, Nurse 
Jane; is there? ” 

“ Oh, no,” answered the muskrat lady. 
“ There is never a name on a valentine.” 

“Hum! Very strange!” said Uncle Wig- 


Uncle Wiggily and the Valentines 91 


gily, making his nose twinkle like a piece of 
chewing gum. 

Just then the door-bell rang again. 

“ That must be another,” cried Nurse Jane. 
She went to the door to get it. This valentine 
was all colored red and gold, with trimmings of 
apple sauce on the sides, and an ice cream cone 
in the middle. 

“ Oh, how pretty ! ” cried the rabbit gentle- 
man. “ Let me see if there is a verse on that.” 
There was, and it read : 

“ The sunflower grows up very tall, 

We love Uncle Wiggily, one and all. 

If he should lose his automobile, 

Then Buddy Pigg would give a squeal.” 

“ Oh, ho ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. “ I 
know who that’s from, Buddy, the little guinea 
pig boy, sent that.” 

“ You never can tell,” spoke Nurse Jane. 
“ Sometimes folks put another person’s name on 
a valentine, just for a joke.” 

“ Ha! Ha! ’’cried Uncle Wiggily. “Well, 
I’ll find out who sent this after a bit.” 

Then the door-bell rang again and out hur- 
ried Nurse Jane. She picked up another val- 


92 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


entine and brought it to Uncle Wiggily. This 
time it was a large one, made in the shape of a 
sofa pillow, with feathers inside it, so that if it 
fell down it would not be hurt. And all around 
it were slices of turnip and sweet potatoes, and 
in the middle was some nice lace paper and a 
verse that went something like this: 

“ Your eyes are red, your nose can twinkle, 

I found the shell of a periwinkle. 

’Twas on the sand by the ocean blue, 

And, Uncle Wiggily, I love you ! ” 

“ Ha ! Ha ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 

“ That certainly is a fine verse. It reminds 
me of the ones I wrote when I went to school. 
And now I’ll tell you what I want you to do, 
Nurse Jane.” 

“ What? ” asked the muskrat lady. 

“ I want you to cut out a pair of long ears 
from cardboard, just like mine,” went on the 
rabbit gentleman. “ Fix them on the back of a 
chair, and then put them in front of the window 
where the light will shine on them. They will 
make a shadow on the window curtain and any- 
one looking in from outside will think I am sit- 
ting by the window.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Valentines 93 


“I see!” exclaimed Nurse Jane. “I’ll do 
it.” 

“ Then I’ll slip out the back door,” went on 
the rabbit gentleman. “ The children, who, I 
am sure, are hiding out in front, sending me 
these valentines, will think I am still here. 
They’ll come up on the porch with some more 
and then when they don’t know it, I can catch 
them at it.” 

“Oh, but you wouldn’t hurt them; would 
you? ” cried Nurse Jane. 

“ Hurt them? Bless your long tail, of course 
not ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. “ But you 
just gather up all the cake and pie you can find 
in the house and then you’ll see what will hap- 
pen,” and his nose twinkled very fast indeed. 

Nurse Jane laughed. Then she cut out of 
pasteboard a pair of ears just like Uncle Wig- 
gily’s. She fastened them to the back of a rock- 
ing chair, and put it where the shadow would 
fall on the window shade. Anyone outside 
would have said that surely Uncle Wiggily was 
sitting there. 

That’s what Charlie Chick thought when he 
slipped up to drop his valentine on the porch. 
But Uncle Wiggily had let himself out the back 
door, and had gone quietly around to the front. 


94 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


He heard a whispering in the bushes, and then 
he saw Charlie Chick ring his door-bell. Up 
rushed the rabbit gentleman. 

“ Now I have you ! ” he cried with a jolly 
laugh. “ Send your Uncle Wiggily valentines, 
will you ! Ah, ha ! ” 

He caught Charley Chick and then all the 
other animal children were so surprised that 
they ran out of their hiding-places and were 
also caught. 

“ This is my Valentine surprise ! ” cried 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Come right in the house, 
every one of you! ” 

“Are you angry because we sent you valen- 
tines? ” asked Susie Littletail, sort of shyly- 
like. 

“Angry! You just wait!” cried the rabbit 
gentleman. And when they went in Uncle 
Wiggily’s hollow stump bungalow, there was a 
table all piled full of cake and pie and buns 
and gingerbread and ice cream, and everything 
nice. 

“ Oh, joy ! Oh, happiness ! ” cried the animal 
children ! 

“ This is my valentine ! ” exclaimed Uncle 
Wiggily. “ Listen : 


Uncle Wiggily and the Valentines 95 


“ Cake is fine, and candy, too, 

Eat as much as is good for you. 

I offer you the best of cheer, 

And hope you’ll come again next year!” 

Then all the animal children laughed and 
clapped their paws, and they laughed still more 
when they saw the funny make-believe ears of 
pasteboard which looked exactly like Uncle 
Wiggily’s. 

So that’s all now, if you please, but in the next 
chapter, if the postman doesn’t blow his whistle 
so loudly that he wakes up our pet mud turtle, 
who is asleep on the piano stool, I’ll tell you 
about Uncle Wiggily and the sawdust doll. 


CHAPTER XI 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SAWDUST DOLL 

One day Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit 
gentleman, went out to the hollow log where 
he kept his automobile, with the big turnip for 
a steering wheel. 

“ Are you off for another ride? ” asked Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, as she 
saw Uncle Wiggily tickling the whizzicum- 
whazzicum of his automobile to make it start. 

“ Yes, I am going to ride over and see Susie 
Littletail, my little rabbit niece,” answered 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I promised to give her a ride 
the first nice day. And it is very nice now.” 

“ Well, be careful not to get caught in a snow- 
storm,” said Nurse Jane, as she went back in the 
house to let the dinner dishes swim around in 
the soapy-suds water to get clean. 

So Uncle Wiggily, after giving his automobile 
a drink of gasoline, started off to the house of 
Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl. When he 
96 


Uncle Wiggily and the Sawdust Doll 97 


reached there Susie was not yet home from 
school, but Uncle Wiggily said he would wait 
for her, and while he waited he ate a piece of 
carrot shortcake that Mrs. Littletail had baked. 

Pretty soon Susie came home from school. 

“ Oh, joy ! ” she cried, clapping her paws. 
“ Here is Uncle Wiggily ! Have you come to 
take me for the ride, as you promised? ” 

“ Yes,” answered the rabbit gentleman. 

“ And may I come too? ” asked Sammie, who 
was Susie’s brother. 

“ Of course ! ” answered Uncle Wiggily. 

“ And you may hold my doll, Matilda Peach- 
blossom Nutmeggrater, if you like,” said Susie, 
kindly. 

“ Pooh! Boys don’t hold dolls! ” exclaimed 
Sammie, sort of sticking up his nose. 

“ Oh, I don’t care,” said Susie. “ I don’t be- 
lieve Matilda would want you to hold her, any- 
how, so there ! ” 

“Now, children!” said Mrs. Littletail, 

softly. 

Well, Sammie and Susie hopped into the 
automobile with their uncle, and Susie held her 
doll tightly in her paws, so she would not fall. 
Off they started, going as fast as the wind. 

All of a sudden, as the automobile was going 


98 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


through the woods, it bounced over an old 
stump. 

Up in the air went Uncle Wiggily and 
Sammie and Susie, and the little rabbit girl was 
jiggled and joggled so hard that her doll, 
Matilda Peachblossom Nutmeggrater, bounced 
out of her paws, and down she fell on the ground 
- — and — what do you think? the automobile, 
with one of its big rubber-tired wheels, ran right 
over Matilda. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Susie. “ My doll ! My 
doll!” 

“ There she is ! ” said Sammie, looking back. 
“ I guess she is no good any more, Susie.” 
Sammie had tried to catch his sister’s doll, when 
the bounce came, but he had all he could do to 
hold himself from falling out of the auto. 

“ Oh, dear ! My poor Matilda ! ” sobbed 
Susie. 

“ Maybe she isn’t hurt very much,” spoke 
Uncle Wiggily, as he stopped his auto, and got 
out to run back and pick up Matilda Peach- 
blossom Nutmeggrater. But when the rabbit 
gentleman hopped back with the doll, the saw- 
dust stuffing was running from her poor arms 
and legs and body. In a regular stream the saw- 
dust filling poured out from Susie’s doll. 



I 










Uncle Wiggily and the Sawdust Doll 99 


“ Oh, dear ! ” cried the little rabbit girl. 
“ She’s bleeding — she’s bleeding.” 

“ Never mind,” said Uncle Wiggily quickly. 
“ I know how we can save her. I’ll take her to 
Dr. Possum. Hold fast now, Sammie and 
Susie, for I am going to make my auto go very 
quickly, and we’ll soon be at Dr. Possum’s 
office, and he will put new sawdust filling in the 
doll, and she will be as well as ever.” 

So Uncle Wiggily gave Susie her doll to hold, 
and away they went in the auto. Susie looked at 
poor Matilda. The doll had many holes in her 
legs and arms and body, and out of these holes 
sifted the sawdust, which is just the same to a 
doll as the filling is to a Thanksgiving turkey. 

“Oh, poor Matilda!” cried Susie. And 
Sammie felt sorry for his sister. 

Pretty soon they were at Dr. Possum’s office. 

“ Here’s a sick doll for you to cure ! ” cried 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Please be quick! ” 

“ Bring her in,” said Dr. Possum. And when 
he saw Matilda Peachblossom Nutmeggrater, 
with nearly all the sawdust out of her, he said: 
“ First we must sew up the holes, and then put 
in new sawdust. Susie, I’ll let you do the sew- 
ing.” 

With a needle, thread and thimble, which the 


100 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


good doctor got for her, Susie soon sewed up 
the holes in her doll. Then no more sawdust 
could sift out. But poor Matilda! How thin 
she was ! And so slimpsy ! She could not even 
sit up sraight, but fell over like the dish rag after 
it has jumped the rope or danced the fox-trot. 
And she kept her eyes closed all the time. Poor 
thing ! 

“ Now for the sawdust! ” cried Dr. Possum. 
“ I wonder if I have any in the house? ” So 
he looked, but he could not find a bit. “ Oh, I 
must get some soon, and fill up Susie’s doll, or 
she will be very ill,” he said. 

Just then Sammie saw a wagon load of saw- 
dust being driven pass the doctor’s office. He 
ran out and cried: 

“ Oh, please give me some sawdust to stuff 
in my sister’s doll ! ” 

“ No, I am sorry, but I can’t ! ” said the man 
on the sawdust wagon. “ All this goes to a 
butcher shop to sprinkle on the floor.” 

Then Sammie saw an old fox gentleman 
trotting along with a basket full of sawdust 
over his paw. 

“ Oh, please give me some sawdust for my 
sister’s doll ! ” begged Sammie. 

“ No, no ! ” said the fox gentleman. “ I need 


Uncle Wiggily and the Sawdust Doll 101 


this sawdust to sprinkle on an icy place in my 
sidewalk, so no one will fall down.” 

Then it seemed as if there would be no saw- 
dust for Susie’s doll, who was getting more and 
more ill every minute. But finally Uncle Wig- 
gily cried: 

“ I have it! The very thing. Nurse Jane 
Fuzzy Wuzzy has a long round tail, that is just 
like a file. I will have her rub it up and down, 
scratchingly, on a piece of wood, and that will 
make very fine sawdust for your doll, Susie. I’ll 
go get Nurse Jane, in my auto.” 

Away after the muskrat lady went Uncle 
Wiggily in his auto. Soon he came back with 
her, and he cried : 

“ Now, Nurse Jane, please make some saw- 
dust for Susie’s doll ! ” 

“ Of course I will! ” said Nurse Jane, kindly. 
Then, while Uncle Wiggily and Dr. Possum 
held up a piece of board, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy 
scraped her big round rough filetail against the 
wood, and Sammie caught the sawdust in a dust- 
pan. Soon there was enough to fill Susie’s doll 
up nice and plump again. 

Dr. Possum put the sawdust in the doll with 
a funnel, and Susie sewed up the hole through 
which it was poured in. 


102 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“There you are!” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Matilda Peachblossom Nutmeggrater is as 
well as ever.” 

And so she was. She opened her eyes, and, 
Oh! how glad Susie was. And so was Uncle 
Wiggily and everyone else. 

So that’s all now, if you please, but if the 
kitchen poker doesn’t take the lids off the stove 
and throw them out of the window, I’ll tell you 
about Uncle Wiggily learning to dance. 


CHAPTER XII 


UNCLE WIGGILY LEARNS TO DANCE 

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentle- 
man, was out walking one day, when he hap- 
pened to pass by the hollow stump where the 
Littletail family of rabbits lived. Uncle Wig- 
gily saw Sammie and Susie, the rabbit boy and 
girl, coming out with little bags on their paws. 

“ Where are you going? ” asked Uncle Wig- 
gily. “ You seem as if you were going after 
chestnuts, or maybe after carrots, but that can 
not be as it is now winter.” 

“ No, we are not going after any of those 
things, Uncle Wiggily,” answered Susie. “ We 
are going to take our dancing lesson. Wouldn’t 
you like to come? ” 

Susie loved Uncle Wiggily very much, 
especially after he had helped cure her sawdust 
doll that was run over by the automobile. 

“What! Me go to dancing class?” ex- 
claimed Uncle Wiggily. “ I am much too old 
103 


104 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


for that — too old and stiff. Besides you forget 
I have the rheumatism.” 

“ Dancing might be good for it,” suggested 
Sammie. “ It might limber you up. See, we 
have our dancing slippers in these bags,” and 
he showed them to Uncle Wiggily. “ Come to 
our dancing school if you like, and perhaps you 
are not too old to learn. There are many older 
animals there than you are.” 

“ Are there? ” asked Uncle Wiggily. “ But, 
no, I think I had better not. Run along with 
you before I change my mind.” 

So Sammie and Susie went to dancing class, 
where they learned to hop, skip and jump and 
glide about on top of a nice flat stump. 

Uncle Wiggily went on his way, and the 
farther he went the more he thought about danc- 
ing. He remembered, how very glad and happy 
every one seemed who danced, and he recalled 
how, in the summer time, the grasshoppers and 
crickets danced to the songs of the kadydids. 

“ I wonder if I could dance? ” thought Uncle 
Wiggily. He looked around. He was alone in 
the woods. “ Come !” he exclaimed. “ No one 
can see me if I am awkward and stiff. I’ll just 
try a few steps.” 

So he did, hopping about with his rheumatism 


Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance 105 


crutch. But as soon as he started to do a little 
carrot and lettuce waltz as well as he could, he 
cried out: 

“Ouch! Oh, my! Oh, dear!” 

“ What is the matter? ” asked a voice close 
beside him, and looking around, Uncle Wiggily 
saw a little brown and white mousie lady. 

“ Oh, excuse me if I frightened you,” he said, 
“ but I just tried to dance and my rheumatism 
hurt me so I had to cry out. I will go away. 
Dancing was not made for old rabbit gentle- 
men.” 

And then, before he could move, Uncle Wig- 
gily saw the nice little brown and white mousie 
lady begin walzting about on top of a flat 
stump. 

Around and around she went, whirling about 
on the tips of her hind paws, and very lightly 
and prettily she did it, too. 

“ Ha! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, surprised-like. 
“ You are quite a dancer. How did you learn 
to do it? ” 

“ Why, it comes natural in our family,” said 
the mousie. “ I am one of the waltzing mice 
from Japan, which is a far-off country. If you 
like, I will teach you to dance.” 

“ Good! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ That will 


106 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


be fine. I can come off here in the woods, where 
no one can laugh at me for being stiff, and I 
can learn to dance. Then I can surprise Sam- 
mie and Susie, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, 
too. I’ll do it.” 

“ Then I’ll give you the first lesson,” said the 
mousie lady, as she waltzed around again on her 
hind paws. 

Well, that was only the beginning. Every 
day after that Uncle Wiggily slipped quietly off 
to the woods to take a dancing lesson from the 
mouse. At first it was hard work, but soon he 
was not so stiff, and his rheumatism did not pain 
him so, and by and by he was a good dancer. 

He learned to do the rabbit crawl, and the 
bunny jump as well as the cheese nibble and the 
cracker snap, which are very hard dances, 
indeed, to say nothing of the hesitation waltz, 
the one-step-on-your-toes, the fox-trot and the 
goose gambol. 

One day, when Uncle Wiggily had been tak- 
ing dancing lessons for some time, Nurse Jane 
Fuzzy Wuzzy said to him: 

“ Where do you go, off by yourself, every day, 
Uncle Wiggily? ” 

“ Oh,” he said, laughing, “ that is a secret. 
Some day I will tell you.” 


Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance 107 


“ Oh, tell me now! ” teased Nurse Jane, but 
Uncle Wiggily would not. And he kept on tak- 
ing dancing lessons. 

One day Nurse Jane said to him: 

“ Uncle Wiggily, Sammie and Susie are go- 
ing to have a little party. They have invited us. 
Shall we go? ” 

“ Why, yes, of course ! ” exclaimed the rabbit 
gentleman, making his ears go flip-flop. 

“ The only trouble is,” went on Nurse Jane, 
“ that there is going to be dancing, and you 
know you ” 

“ Oh, I dare say I can sit and look on with 
you,” interrupted the rabbit gentleman, sort of 
blinking his eyes to himself. 

“ Very well,” said Nurse Jane. 

So she and Uncle Wiggily got ready to go to 
the party of Sammie and Susie. Uncle Wiggily 
dressed himself in his best suit, and Nurse Jane 
had on a sky-blue dress with pink trimmings. 
She looked very pretty, too, let me tell you. 

All the animal children were at the party, and 
when the musician canary birds began to play 
and sing all the young folks began to dance. 

Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, 
did a fine chestnut glide with Jennie Chipmunk 
and Susie Littletail ; and Charlie and Arabella, 


108 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


the chicken children, did an omelet skip that was 
as fine as anything ever seen in a circus. 

Louder and faster played the canary bird 
music. Uncle Wiggily kept time by tapping 
his crutch on the floor. He looked at Nurse 
Jane in her blue dress, and noticed that she was 
tapping her paw on the side of her chair. 

“ Do you like to dance, Nurse Jane? ” the 
rabbit gentleman asked. 

“ Very much,” she answered. “ I used to be 
a fine dancer when I was a young muskrat. But 
I have no one here to dance with me.” 

“ I will dance with you ! ” cried Uncle Wig- 
gily, suddenly. 

“What, you? Can you dance?” asked 
Nurse Jane, surprised-like. 

“ I certainly can! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, not 
at all proud-like. 

“ And won’t you step on my dress and tear 
it? ” asked Nurse Jane, anxiously. “ Or tread 
on my toes? ” 

“ Try me! ” laughed Uncle Wiggily. So he 
laid aside his crutch, and while the birds made 
louder and still faster music, Uncle Wiggily led 
Nurse Jane out to the middle of the floor, and 
there he danced with her. They did the turnip 


Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance 109 


trot, and the carrot fling, and then they slid over 
in the cornmeal caper. 

“ Oh, how well you dance ! ” cried Miss 
Fuzzy Wuzzy. “ How did you manage it? I 
never knew you could do it! ” 

Then Uncle Wiggily told about taking 
private lessons in the woods from the mouse 
lady, and Nurse Jane laughed and said: 

“ Well, you certainly can keep a secret! ” 

Then she and Uncle Wiggily did the apple 
dumpling turnover, and the strawberry short- 
cake trot, and every one of the animal children 
clapped their paws and said it was fine. Then 
the party went on, and Uncle Wiggily danced 
until morning and his rheumatism did not hurt 
him a bit. 

And in the next chapter, if the moving picture 
doesn’t run so fast that it jumps out of the 
window and scares our cat, so she falls into the 
milk bottle, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily 
doing a flip-flop. 


CHAPTER XIII 


UNCLE WIGGILY DOES A FLIP-FLOP 

One day, when it was snowing just a little 
bit, with tiny flakes, like canary bird feathers, 
sifting down out of the sky, only of course the 
snow was white, and not yellow, as a canary 
bird is; one day, about eleven o’clock in the 
morning, or maybe it might have been eleven- 
thirty, for all I know, Mrs. Wibblewobble, the 
duck lady, paid a visit to Nurse Jane Fuzzy 
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady who kept house for 
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentle- 
man. 

“ Good-morning, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy,” 
politely said Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady. 

“ Good-morning, my dear,” answered the 
muskrat lady. “ Come in and sit down and let’s 
talk.” 

So Mrs. Wibblewobble went in, flapping her 
wings and waggling her tail to shake off the 
snow flakes so they wouldn’t get on the floor. 

110 


Uncle Wiggily Does a Flip-Flop 111 


Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy was very particular about 
her floor. 

“ Have you heard the news? ” asked Mrs. 
Wibblewobble, speaking the way ladies do when 
they want to make a surprise. 

“ News? No. What news? ” asked the 
muskrat lady. “ Is it a secret? Oh, do tell 
me! ” 

“ Why, Grandfather Goosey Gander is very 
ill,” went on Mrs. Wibblewobble. “ He lives 
next door to us, you know, and just before I 
came over to see you I met Dr. Possum coming 
out of Grandfather Goosey’s house. ‘ Why, 
whatever is the trouble? ’ I asked. Then Dr. 
Possum said Grandfather Goosey Gander was 
very ill.” 

“ My, that is too bad,” exclaimed Nurse 
Jane. “ Uncle Wiggily will be very sorry to 
hear that, for Grandfather Goosey Gander is 
his most particular friend. Pray what is the 
matter with him? ” 

“ Dr. Possum did not seem to know,” 
answered Mrs. Wibblewobble. “ Dr. Possum 
said Grandpa just sat by the stove and quacked 
dismally, every now and then, and seemed so 
sad and forlorn, that he wouldn’t eat anything 
at all. It is too bad ! ” 


112 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ He won’t eat anything, eh? ” exclaimed 
Nurse Jane. “ I wonder if I fixed him up some 
nice cornmeal pancakes, with orange pudding 
sauce on, trimmed with carrots and buttonhole 
stitch parsnips, if he wouldn’t eat that? ” 

“ Perhaps he would,” said Mrs. Wibble- 
wobble. “ You try that, and I’ll make him a 
watercress cake with snail frosting on, and rows 
of ribbon lace around the edges. Perhaps that 
will make him get well.” 

“ Why, who is sick? ” asked Uncle Wiggily, 
the rabbit gentleman himself, just then coming 
in from having been out playing tag with his 
automobile. “ I hope neither Lulu, Alice nor 
Jimmie is ill,” he went on to Mrs. Wibble- 
wobble, most politely, at the same time bending 
his ears forward and backward, as easily as you 
can eat a lollypop. 

“ No, none of my children is ill, I am glad 
to say,” spoke Mrs. Wibblewobble. “ It is 
Grandfather Goosey Gander.” 

Then she told how the goose gentleman sat 
behind the stove in his pen, croaking and quack- 
ing through his yellow bill and not eating any- 
thiny to speak of. 

“ My, that is too bad ! ” exclaimed Uncle 
Wiggily. “ I know what he needs. A good, 


Uncle Wiggily Does a Flip-Flop 113 


lively game of Scotch checkers. I’ll go over 
and play with him, and that will make him feel 
better at once.” 

“ And we’ll make him something nice to 
eat! ” said Nurse Jane. 

So these kind creatures, all in their own way, 
prepared to do a kindness to Grandfather 
Goosey Gander. For, you know, animals can 
be good and kind, as well as boys and girls. 

Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy made some of the 
loveliest lollypop pancakes you ever saw, with 
orange pudding sauce on. Mrs. Wibblewobble 
baked a watercress cake, with cornmeal muffins 
in the middle, and Jimmie, her little boy, caught 
some nice snails out of the goldfish globe to go 
on top of the cake. Grandpa Goosey just loved 
snails. 

Then Uncle Wiggily took out the Scotch 
checker-board, to play a nice game with 
Grandpa Goosey, and started for the old gentle- 
man goose’s den in his auto. 

Now you would have thought that all these 
things would have made Grandfather Goosey 
Gander feel better; especially the watercress 
cake with snail frosting on. But, do you know, 
he never even came out of his chair behind the 
stove. He just sat there, looking at the good 


114 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


things to eat, and he only quacked out most 
dolefully: 

“ Oh, I am so miserable ! I feel terrible ! ” 

“ Oh, cheer up ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, gaily. 
“ You will soon be better. Isn’t Dr. Possum 
doing you any good? ” 

“ No,” answered Grandpa Goosey. “ And 
see, it is snowing. There is going to be a terrible 
storm ! ” 

“ Well, we need snow in winter,” said Nurse 
Jane, cheerfully. 

“ And after that it may rain ! ” went on 
Grandpa Goosey. 

“ What of it? We ducks like rain ! ” laughed 
Mrs. Wibblewobble. 

“ Try some of my cornmeal pancakes,” 
begged Nurse Jane. 

“ No, I am too ill to eat ! ” quacked the old 
goose gentleman. “ Oh, this world is a terrible 
place to live in ! ” 

“ Oh, cheer up,” begged Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Cheer up, do! Have a good game of Scotch 
checkers with me, and you’ll be happier.’ 

“ No, please go away, and let me die in 
peace ! ” quacked Grandpa Goosey. You can 
guess now, I think, what was the matter with 
the old gentleman goose. He had the grumps. 


Uncle Wiggily Does a Flip-Flop 115 


Now the grumps are the very worst thing any- 
body can have. They are not like the mumps, 
though they sound like them. The grumps are 
worse than the grumbles, and they’re bad 
enough. Why, the grumps are worse than the 
Sallie-flinders, and goodness knows they are 
just fearful. For when persons have the Sallie- 
flinders they just fly into a passion and break 
every lollypop they see. So Grandpa Goosey 
had the grumps, but otherwise he wasn’t ill at 
all. 

“ Stuff and nonsense ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wig- 
gily. “You talk about dying! Why you’re 
only a mere goose child yet. Be happy ! ” 

But Grandfather Goosey only shook his yel- 
low bill, and ruffled up his feathers and was 
grumpier than ever. 

And then, all of a sudden, out in the street 
passed Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, play- 
ing a mouth organ. Oh! what a fine tune he 
played on it, and no sooner did Uncle Wiggily 
hear it than he cried out : 

“ Why, that’s the same tune to which I learned 
to dance. Ha! that is a flip-flop tune. I am 
going to do a dance, right here and now! 
Watch me!” 

Then and there right in front of grumpy 


116 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Grandfather Goosey Gander, Uncle Wiggily 
did the queerest dance you ever saw. 

The rabbit gentleman slid backward and for- 
ward, and even sideways. He bent his paws, 
and, then, making a quick turn, he looked over 
his left shoulder as if to see if his tail had dropped 
off. But it had not. Then he wiggled his ears, 
and stood on his tip toes, and then he went 
around in a circle. Next he gave a hop, whirled 
around a chair, did a flip-flop up on top of the 
table and then he tetered and tautered down 
again. 

Oh, how Nurse Jane and Mrs. Wibblewobble 
laughed! And first Grandpa Goosey didn’t 
even smile. Then he smiled a little bit at funny 
Uncle Wiggily. Then the goose gentleman 
smiled more — then, all of a sudden, he laughed 
softly, then louder, and finally he went : 

“Ha! Ha! Ha !” right out loud. 

“ Now you are cured ; you haven’t the grumps 
any more! ” cried Uncle Wiggily, and, surely 
enough, Grandpa Goosey was cured. Watch- 
ing Uncle Wiggily do the flip-flop was better 
than medicine. Then Grandpa Goosey ate the 
cornmeal pancakes, and the watercress cake 
and he was happy once more. So you see danc- 
ing is of some use, in this world, after all. 


Uncle Wiggily Does a Flip-Flop 117 


And in the next chapter, if the horse radish 
doesn’t run over the tongue out of the rag doll’s 
shoe, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily helping 
Charlie Chick. 


CHAPTER XIV 


UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS CHARLIE CHICK 

“ Where are you going, Charlie? ” asked 
Arabella, the little chicken girl, of her brother 
one day, when she saw him start off down the 
woodland path after school. 

“ Oh, I’m going to have some fun,” answered 
Charlie, as he caught a stone up in his claw, 
and slid it over the ice of the duck pond, like 
a fairie’s little sled. 

“ May I come along? ” asked Arabella. 
“ All the other girl animals are away, and I have 
no one to play with. Mayn’t I come? ” 

“ No, I’m going off with the boys,” answered 
Charlie, “ and we don’t want a girl. A girl 
always gets tired and wants to come home.” 

“ Truly, I won’t get tired,” eagerly promised 
Arabella. 

“ No, you can’t come ! ” said Charlie, rather 
crossly, ruffling up his feathers. 

“ Oh, dear! ” said Arabella, sadly. 

118 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Charlie Chick 119 


Afterward, though, she was very glad she had 
not gone with her brother Charlie, on account 
of what happened to him. I’ll tell you all about 
it, and also how Uncle Wiggily came along at 
just the right time. 

Charlie Chick went on through the woods, 
where a path was shoveled through the snow. 
He was looking for some of his friends — Jackie 
and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, or 
Buddy, the guinea pig chap, or Tommie or Joie 
Kat, the kittens. But he saw none of them. 

Pretty soon Charlie heard a noise in the 
woods, a little way off from the path. 

“ Ha ! I had better see what that is,” he said 
to himself. “ It may be a fox prowling around.” 
For, you know, foxes are very fond of chickens, 
and like to eat them, whether they are cooked or 
not. And they take their feathers to make sofa 
cushions for their dens — the foxes do. 

But it was not a fox that Charlie saw as he 
peeped through the bushes. The little chicken 
boy saw a man, and the man was stooping down 
in front of a box, and scattering nice yellow 
grains of corn about it on the snow. 

“ Ha! That is very strange — to be throwing 
corn away like that! ” thought Charlie. “ My 
mamma would be glad to get it. I’ll just wait 


120 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


until that man goes away, and then I’ll pick up 
all the yellow kernels ! ” 

Charlie was not much afraid of men — not 
as afraid as he was of boys, for he knew boys 
often chased chickens, and other animals, and 
threw stones at them. Men did not do that. 

So Charlie waited. He saw the man scatter 
more corn in front of the box, and then, after a 
while, go away, so that Charlie was left alone. 

“ Now for the corn ! ” crowed Charlie. 

The little chicken boy walked out from be- 
hind the bush, back of which he had been hid- 
den. He looked all around, stretching his long 
neck first this way, and then that, but he saw no 
danger. 

Then he went closer to the corn. There was 
so much of it that Charlie thought it would do 
no harm if he ate a few kernels. 

“ The rest of it I will take home to mamma and 
Arabella,” he thought. And he was a bit sorry 
that he had not brought his little sister with him. 
For he saw there was almost too much corn for 
him to carry alone, especially as he had no sack, 
or bag. 

“ But I can fill my pockets,” thought Charlie, 
“ and there’s a can over there. I can put some 
in that.” Charlie found an empty tomato can, 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Charlie Chick 121 


and then he noticed that the corn seemed to 
stretch out, in a long line, leading right up to 
the box. Away from the box there were only a 
few grains of corn scattered on the snow. But 
close to the box there were more kernels, and in- 
side the box a very great many. 

“ What a foolish creature a man is ! ” laughed 
Charlie, “ to go away and leave all his corn here. 
Well, so much the better for me ! ” 

If Charlie had only known — but there; I’ll 
tell you what happened to him. 

On and on he went, picking up the grains of 
corn, until he was close to the box. The box 
was open at one side, and there was a sort of 
cover to it, held up by a stick. 

“ First I’ll get all the corn that is inside the 
box,” thought Charlie, who had eaten all he 
wanted. “ Then, with my claws, I’ll scratch up 
what is outside.” 

Into the box went Charlie, and he began 
gathering up the kernels of yellow corn, to put 
in his tin can. And then — 

Alas ! I wish I didn’t have to tell about this 
part of the story, but I must. 

When Charlie picked up one grain of corn 
he did not notice that it was fast to a string, and 


122 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


that the string was tied to the stick that held up 
the box cover. 

When Charlie pulled on this string, to get the 
grain of corn loose, he loosed the stick, which 
toppled over, and down came the box cover — 
“ bang! ” 

Charlie Chick was caught fast in a trap ! For 
that is what the box was — a trap. The man had 
set it there, knowing that some poor, foolish ani- 
mal would come along. And the man knew the 
animal or chicken, or maybe a wild turkey, 
would follow the line, or trail of corn, and go 
into the box. And the man knew the cover 
would fall down, for he had made it to do just 
that very thing. 

“ Oh, dear, cried Charlie. “ I’m caught, for 
sure! ” 

So you see, it is a good thing Arabella didn’t 
go with him, just as I said it was at first. 

Poor Charlie flittered and fluttered about in 
the box trap and beat his wings against the sides. 
But he could not get out, and he only hurt him- 
self. Then, with his claws and beak, he tried to 
scratch and punch a hole in the box, but the 
wood was too hard. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Charlie again. Then 
he heard a noise outside and he thought the man 


Uncle Wiggily Helps Charlie Chick 123 


was coming back to get him. Charlie kept very 
still then, hoping the man would not come to 
the trap. The little chicken boy looked through 
a crack in the box, and how his heart beat with 
joy when he saw Uncle Wiggily in his auto- 
mobile. Something was wrong with the ma- 
chine. It had stopped, and the rabbit gentle- 
man had gotten out to fix it. 

“ Oh, Uncle Wiggily ! ” cried Charlie. 
“ Help me ! Save me ! ” 

“ Bless my ears! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ Who is that? It sounds like Charlie Chick — 
but where in the world can he be? ” 

“ In this trap, Uncle Wiggily ! ” cried Charlie. 
“ Please get me out before the man comes ! ” 

“ Indeed, I will ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
Then he hurried over to the trap, and, with his 
strong teeth, which are made for gnawing, 
Uncle Wiggily began to gnaw a hole in the 
trap. 

Harder and faster he gnawed. First he could 
make only a hole large enough for Charlie to 
stick out his beak. Then the rabbit gentleman 
made the hole larger so Charlie could stick out 
his head. And then, pretty soon, the hole was 
large enough so that Charlie himself could wig- 
gle out. Uncle Wiggily had to gnaw the hole, 


124 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


because the cover of the box trap was fastened 
down by a strong spring, you see, and could not 
be raised up. 

“ Oh, how glad I am to be out ! ” cried Charlie. 
“ Never again will I eat corn that leads to a trap. 
Oh, look, Uncle Wiggily,” he cried. “ Here 
comes that man now ! ” And, indeed, the man 
was coming to see if he had caught anything in 
his trap. 

“Quick! Into my auto!” cried the rabbit 
gentleman. We’ll get safely away ! ” And, 
surely enough, they did; and that man was very 
disappointed to find that something had been in 
his trap, but had gotten out and taken his corn 
besides. But Charlie and Uncle Wiggily were 
glad. 

And in the next chapter, in case the jumping- 
jack doesn’t climb the broomstick and dance a 
jig with the dusting brush, I’ll tell you about 
Uncle Wiggily, himself, getting into a trap. 


CHAPTER XV 


UNCLE WIGGILY IN A TRAP 

“ Well, I suppose you are going out? ” 
spoke Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat 
lady, one morning, as she saw Uncle Wiggily 
Longears take his fur coat off the rack and pick 
up his rheumatism crutch; though he did not 
need the last so much now, as he was not as lame 
as he had been. Going to dancing school had 
helped his rheumatism. “ I suppose you are go- 
ing out? ” said Nurse Jane. 

“ You have supposed most correctly,” an- 
swered the rabbit gentleman, making such a low, 
polite bow that one of his ears tickled Miss Fuzzy 
Wuzzy under the chin. 

“ Are you going in your automobile? ” the 
muskrat lady asked. 

“ No, I am going to walk this time,” said 
Uncle Wiggily. 

“ And what, pray, is the reason for that? ” 
Nurse Jane wanted to know. 

“ The reason is,” answered Uncle Wiggily, 
125 


126 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ that there is a hole in one of the big, fat, rubber, 
German bologna sausage tires of my auto. All 
the air has leaked out and I cannot ride until 
the hole in the tire is mended. 

“ I think a moth must have eaten the hole,” 
went on Uncle Wiggily. “ Mind you, I’m not 
saying for sure, but maybe,” he added. 

“ Nonsense! ” exclaimed Nurse Jane, looking 
to see if the hair ribbon on her tail had dropped 
off, but it had not, I am glad to say. “ Moths 
could not eat a hole in a rubber tire! ” she ex- 
claimed. “ A moth is only a little fuzzy bug.” 

“ Well, I’ve heard you say moths ate holes in 
carpets,” said Uncle Wiggily, “ so why couldn’t 
they eat a hole in my automobile tire? ” 

“ I don’t know why, but they couldn’t,” said 
Nurse Jane. “ Now, if you are going for a walk 
you had better hurry. I have the sweeping and 
dusting to do.” 

So Uncle Wiggily went off by himself, walk- 
ing through the woods. He went past the place, 
where, a day or two before, Charlie Chick had 
been caught in a trap as he was picking up some 
corn. 

“ Gracious! I hope I never get caught in a 
trap like that ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ Now, I think I’ll go over and call on Grand- 


Uncle Wiggily in a Trap 


127 


father Goosey Gander. I’ll see how he is since 
he got over having the grumps.” 

The old goose gentleman was very glad to see 
his rabbit friend and they played a game of 
Scotch checkers and had a good time. And 
Grandpa Goosey was real jolly and laughed 
every time he thought of Uncle Wiggily doing 
the flip-flop dance, as I told you in a story before 
this one. 

Then the rabbit gentleman started off again, 
and, as he was walking through a dark place in 
the woods, where the bushes were close together 
overhead, arching across the top like a railroad 
tunnel, Uncle Wiggily saw something on the 
snow. 

“ Ha ! ” exclaimed the rabbit gentleman, “ I 
must see what this is. It looks like a carrot, but 
I cannot be sure. I must put on my spectacles 
and look more closely. It is quite dark in here.” 

So he took his spectacles out of his pocket and 
put them on, and then he could see, very plainly, 
that it was a nice yellow carrot lying there on 
the snow. 

“ Why, this is very strange,” exclaimed the 
rabbit gentleman. “ A perfectly good carrot 
lying here and no one to pick it up. It is lucky 
I came past this way or I never would have seen 


128 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


it. I will pick it up, take it home and Nurse 
Jane can make me some soup from it.” 

Uncle Wiggily looked all about to make sure 
there were no foxes or other bad animals in the 
woods to grab him, and then he went over to 
the carrot. 

If it had not been so dark under the bushes, or 
if Uncle Wiggily’s eyesight had been better, he 
would have seen something else besides the 
carrot. But I’ll tell you about that in a minute 
or so. 

The old gentleman rabbit reached for the 
nice, sweet vegetable, and picked it up in one 
paw, but no sooner had he done so than he felt 
something grab him around that same paw. 
Then there was a jerk and a bounce, and Uncle 
Wiggily went flying through the air so fast that 
he dropped his rheumatism crutch, and his tall 
silk hat fell off. 

“ Oh, this is dreadful ! ” cried the rabbit gen- 
tleman. “ Have I been taken up in an airship, 
I wonder? ” 

But he soon found that he had stopped going 
up. He was swinging backward and forward 
now from the top of a little tree, and he was held 
fast by a cord about his paw, the other end of the 
string being tied to the swaying tree. 


Uncle Wiggily in a Trap 


129 


Back and forth, to and fro, swung Uncle Wig- 
gily like the pendulum of a clock. He was 
dangling at the end of a cord, and there was a 
slip-noose, like a cowboy’s lassoo, around his 
paw, and the harder you pull a slip-noose the 
tighter it holds, you know. 

“ Oh, dear me ! Alas and alack-a-day ! ” cried 
poor Uncle Wiggily. “ I see it all now. I am 
in a trap. That carrot was the bait of the trap, 
just as the corn was a bait for Charlie Chick, 
and just as cheese is bait for a mouse-trap. Oh, 
I am caught! ” 

And so he was. A man had made the trap to 
catch the rabbit. The man had made a noose in 
a string, and bent a little tree over, like a bow 
that shoots Indian arrows. The tree was fas- 
tened down, but in such a way that, when Uncle 
Wiggily took the carrot, he pulled out the peg 
that held the tree bent over. Then up flew the 
tree, taking the rabbit gentleman along by the 
string. 

“ Oh, how can I ever get loose? ” cried Uncle 
Wiggily. He tried to jar himself down, hoping 
to break the string, but it was too strong and it 
cut into his paw. Then he tried to reach up and 
bite the string with his teeth, but he could not. 
Nor could he break it with his other paw or his 


130 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


feet. He had a knife in one pocket, but it was on 
the side of the paw that was in the noose, and 
Uncle Wiggily could not reach it with his free 
foot. 

“ Oh, I’m afraid I’ll have to stay here until 
the man comes and catches me! ” he thought, 
most sadly. 

Just then Uncle Wiggily heard some one 
walking along, on the ground, down below him. 
He thought it was the man who had set the trap, 
but on looking through the bushes the rabbit 
gentleman saw that it was Charlie Chick. Then, 
oh! how glad Uncle Wiggily was. 

“ Charlie ! Charlie ! ” he cried. “ Can’t you 
help me? I am caught as badly as you were! 
Help me!” 

At first Charlie was frightened, as he couldn’t 
see Uncle Wiggily, but finally he looked up, 
overhead, and caught sight of him. 

“ Of course I’ll help you ! ” cried the chicken 
boy. “ I’ll run and get Nurse Jane Fuzzy 
Wuzzy. She’ll come and with her strong teeth 
she’ll gnaw down the tree and you can get 
loose.” 

“ No, don’t go ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“ There is no time. The man may come along 
any minute. You’ll have to save me yourself.” 


Uncle Wiggily in a Trap 


131 


“ But how can I? ” asked Charlie. “ I can’t 
gnaw down a tree. Oh, I know ! ” he cried sud- 
denly. “ I can scratch away the dirt at the foot 
of it — scratch all the dirt away from the roots, 
and then the tree will topple over, and you can 
reach the ground and get loose. I’ll do it ! ” 

And the chicken boy did. With his strong 
claws Charlie scratched away all the dirt around 
the roots of the tree. Soon the tree toppled gently 
over, so easily that Uncle Wiggily was not hurt a 
bit. Then Charlie could pick open the knot of 
the slip-noose with his beak, and the rabbit 
gentleman was free. He thanked Charlie very 
kindly, too, I can tell you. Then they both went 
home and said they were never going to be 
caught in a trap again. 

And in the chapter after this, if the oatmeal 
dish doesn’t go sliding on the ice and get cracked 
so it can’t hold the milk, from falling into the 
sugar bowl, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily 
and the rocking horse. 


CHAPTER XVI 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE ROCKING HORSE 

Uncle Wiggily, do you know what day it 
is? ” asked Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, as 
he went in his uncle’s house one morning right 
after breakfast. 

“ Why — ah, um ! Let me see. Why this is 
Saturday, of course, and you have no school ! ” 
exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “ I suppose that is 
why you are so happy, Sammie.” 

“Well, I am happy; yes, Uncle Wiggily,” 
Sammie said; “ but that is not the reason. You 
see this is my birthday, and ” 

“ Ha ! say no more,” interrupted Uncle Wig- 
gily. “ Of course you should be happy on your 
birthday. But I had forgotten all about it.” 

“ I thought you had,” said Sammie, sort of 
bashful like and shy, as he tied his ears into a 
knot, and untied them again. “ I — I was afraid 
you might forget it, Uncle Wiggily, so I thought 
I’d better remind you of it. To-day is my birth- 
day, but I don’t know what presents I’m going 
to get ! ” 

“ Don’t you, indeed! ” cried Uncle Wiggily 
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Uncle Wiggily and the Rocking Horse 133 


with a laugh. “ Well, I know one present you 
are going to get.” 

“ Oh, what is it? Do tell me, please ! ” begged 
the rabbit boy. 

“ No, it’s a secret. I’ll tell you by and by. 
Run along now and you’ll soon see what it is.” 

So Sammie hopped over to his house, which 
was not far from the hollow stump where Uncle 
Wiggily lived. 

“ Bless me ! ” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, when 
the rabbit boy had gone. “ Did you ever hear 
the like of that? ” 

“ What? ” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. 

“ Why, this is Sammie’s birthday and I never 
thought to get him a present. I must go to the 
store at once. Please get out my fur coat, for it is 
very cold.” 

Soon Uncle Wiggily started off in his automo- 
bile to go to the toy store for a present for Sam- 
mie’s birthday. The store was kept by a kind old 
monkey gentleman who used to play the hand 
organ in a circus and help feed peanuts to the 
elephant. 

“ Have you any birthday presents for animal 
boys? ” asked Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Loads and loads of them,” answered the 
monkey gentleman. “ Is he a good boy? ” 


134 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“One of the best!” said Uncle Wiggily, 
proudly. 

“ Please walk this way,” invited the monkey, 
and he led the rabbit gentleman to a place where 
there was a large sign reading: 

“ Birthday presents for good boys.” 

“Why!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily in sur- 
prise. “ Do you have presents for bad boys, 
too? ” 

“ Oh, yes, we have presents for bad boys to 
make them better,” spoke the monkey. “ But 
pick out what you’d like for a good boy.” 

Well, there were so many things in the toy 
shop that Uncle Wiggily hardly knew which to 
choose. But finally he picked out a nice big 
rocking horse, painted red, with real hair in the 
tail and mane, and with a bit and bridle and stir- 
rups. Oh, it was a fine rocking horse ! 

“ I’ll take that,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ Put 
it in my auto for me, if you please.” 

So the monkey did this, and off started the rab- 
bit gentleman to take Sammie’s present to him. 
But on the way he had an accident. 

Jus as the automobile got to the edge of the 
big frozen pond, on the other side of which lived 
Sammie Littletail, something happened. I for- 
get now, whether the doodle-oodleum of the auto 


Uncle Wiggily and the Rocking Horse 135 


got twisted around the what-you-may-call-it, or 
whether the fizzilum-fazzilum jumped over the 
tinkerum-tankerum. But, anyhow, something 
went wrong. 

There was a slam, and a bang and then the 
automobile turned a somersault, and part of a 
peppersault, tossing Uncle Wiggily out, and 
right into a snow-bank. Then the automobile, 
having done all the damage it could, lay down 
beside the frozen pond and went to sleep. 

“Well!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, sitting 
up, “ this is a pretty state of affairs! I wonder 
if I am all right? ” 

He tried to get up, but he found he could not 
stand, as one of his legs was sprained. And as 
he had rheumatism in one other leg, and as it 
pained him very much, he found that he could 
not move at all. 

After a while he managed to crawl over to 
the automobile. He thought perhaps she 
could fix it up enough so he could ride home 
in it. But the automobile was upside down, 
or downside up, whichever way you like. 

“There is no getting home in that,” thought 
the rabbit gentleman. “ I must call for help.” 

So he called as loudly as he could : 

“Help! Help! Help!” 


136 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


No one came. Then Uncle Wiggily tooted 
on the cow’s horn that went “ Honk ! Honk !” 
on his auto. But still no one came. He 
could look across the frozen pond to where 
Sammie’s house was, but he could not get 
to it, and it was so far off that none of 
his friends could see him. Wasn’t it too 
bad! 

“Well, I wonder what I can do?” thought 
Uncle Wiggily. “Sammie will be so disap- 
pointed if I don’t come home with his birth- 
day present. I must do something.” 

Then he noticed the red rocking horse 
standing right on the edge of the frozen pond. 
The wind was blowing and making the horse 
sway backward and forward, just as though 
he were galloping. 

“ Ha ! I have it ! Why not ? Why not ride 
the rocking horse, since my auto is broken ! ” 
cried Uncle Wiggily. “ Will you take me 
home ? ” the rabbit gentleman asked, politely. 
Of course, the wooden rocking horse couldn’t 
talk, but it nodded gently in the wind, and 
seemed to say : 

“ Of course I will ! ” 

Then Uncle Wiggily managed to crawl 
over to the red rocking horse. He climbed 


Uncle Wiggily and the Rocking Horse 137 


np on its back, put his feet in the stirrups 
and pulled on the reins. 

“ Get up ! Go ’long ! ” called the rabbit 
gentleman kindly. Then he rocked himself 
to and fro, and would you believe it ? that 
rocking horse began to slide over the ice. 
You know how it is — if you rock your own 
rocking horse hard enough it will slide over 
the bare floor. And, of course, it was much 
easier to slide on the ice. 

Faster and faster rode Uncle Wiggily on the 
red rocking horse. Over the ice he galloped, 
and soon he was at Sammie’s house. 

“ Whoa ! ” called the rabbit gentleman, and 
the horse stopped. “Here is your birthday 
present ! ” he called to Sammie. And wasn’t 
that rabbit boy surprised and pleased ? Well, 
I just guess he was, Sammie rode the rocking 
horse all over the ice. 

Then Dr. Possum was sent for, and took 
Uncle Wiggily home in his carriage, and soon 
the rabbit gentleman’s sore leg was all well 
and his auto was fixed as good as new. 

And in the next chapter, if the postman 
doesn’t take our letter-box away to keep his 
canary bird in, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wig- 
gily and the ball of yarn. 


CHAPTER XVII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BALL OF YARN 

“ Something must be going on, over at the 
chicken coop home,” said Nurse jane Fuzzy 
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept house for 
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, 
as she looked out of the window of the hollow 
stump bungalow one morning. 

“ Something going on? What do you 
mean? ” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he finished 
eating a carrot sandwich which the muskrat 
lady had made for his breakfast. 

“ Why, all the children of the neighborhood 
are going in there,” went on Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. 
“ Come and see,” and she made room at the 
window, so Uncle Wiggily might look over to 
the coop where Charlie and Arabella Chick 
lived. 

“ Yes, there go Sammie and Susie Littletail, 
my rabbit nephew and niece,” spoke Uncle 
Wiggily, wonderingly. 

“ Yes, and there come Tommie, Joie and 
138 


Uncle Wiggily and the Ball of Yarn 139 


Kittie Kat,” said Nurse Jane. “And the 
Wibblewobble duck children, and Johnnie and 
Billie Bushytail, those squirrel boys. I wonder 
what can be going on at the Chick house? 
Some one must be ill ! ” 

“ Oh, no ! They all look too happy for that,” 
spoke Uncle Wiggily. “Ha! I remember 
now. Charlie and Arabella Chick are giving 
a party. They sent me an invitation, but I for- 
got all about it. Gracious sakes alive and some 
peanut pudding ! That is too bad ! I must shave 
myself, put on my best clothes, and run over for 
a little while.” 

“ Yes, do,” said Nurse Jane. “ I would go, 
also, but I have my work to do. Perhaps they 
will do some of the new dances over there, Wig- 
gie,” she said, calling him that funny name, just 
for fun. 

“ If there is any dancing going on I will help,” 
said the rabbit gentleman, who felt ever so much 
younger now that he had taken dancing lessons 
of the waltzing mouse lady, and could do the 
carrot flip as well as the rabbit run. 

Well, Uncle Wiggily was soon ready. He 
shaved off his prickly whiskers and then, wear- 
ing his tall silk hat, and his fur coat, over he 
went to the party in the chicken coop house. 


140 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


And oh! how glad all the animal children 
were to see the rabbit uncle. They clapped their 
paws, and laughed, and Charlie Chick even 
turned a peppersault over the ice cream freezer. 

“ Now we’re going to have some dancing! ” 
the little chicken boy said. “We will do the 
corn meal hop and the cold potato glide. After 
that we’ll do the water-pan waltz.” 

Well, every one liked this, and soon, to the 
tune of music made by a last year’s cricket lady, 
who stayed by the warm fire-place, every one 
was dancing. Uncle Wiggily took Mrs. Chick 
for a partner, and they danced the parlor rug 
slide, as well as one other, where they had to keep 
looking over their shoulders every now and then 
to see if they had lost their tails. That was a 
funny dance. 

Well, all the animal friends played many 
games at the party Charlie and Arabella Chick 
gave, and had much fun. Grandma Cluck- 
Cluck, the old lady hen, looked on over the tops 
of her glasses, and she enjoyed it as much as any 
one. She even did part of the barn dance, but 
she said it made her dizzy to go as fast as the 
others, so she went up to her room to lie down. 

Then Arabella called : 

“ Now for a good game of hide-and-go-seek! 


Uncle Wiggily and the Ball of Yarn 141 


I’ll blind, and when I say, ‘ Ready or not, I’m 
coming! ’ you must all be hidden.” 

The animal children thought this would be 
lots of fun, and so they looked for different 
places to hide, while Arabella blinded her eyes 
by covering them with her paws, and she didn’t 
peek a single mite. 

“ I’m going to find a good place to hide,” 
whispered Kittie Kat to her brother Joie. 

“ Where? ” he asked. “ Tell me ! ” 

“ I will next time, if Arabella doesn’t find me,” 
said Kittie. 

And where do you think she went? Up in 
Grandma Cluck-Cluck’s room. It was very 
still and quiet there, for the dear old lady hen had 
fallen asleep after doing the barn dance. Kittie 
slipped in softly and hid down by Grandma 
Cluck-Cluck’s rocking chair. 

The little kitten girl could hear the others run- 
ning about and hiding, and then she heard Ara- 
bella call : 

“ Ready or not, I’m coming! ” 

“ I guess she won’t find me,” thought Kittie. 

It was very still and quiet in Grandma Cluck- 
Cluck’s room, and Arabella never thought of 
looking for Kittie there. Pretty soon the little 


142 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


cat girl saw a ball of yarn that grandma was 
using to knit mittens for Charlie and Arabella. 

“ I wonder if I could knit? ” thought Kittie. 
“ Fm going to try. It won’t make any noise to 
awaken her.” 

The ball of yarn with the mitten partly fin- 
ished, and the knitting needles stuck in it, was in 
grandma’s chair. Softly Kittie Kat took the ball 
up, and she tried to make the shining needles 
go in and out of the worsted the way she had seen 
her own grandma do. 

But her claws became tangled in the yarn, 
she pulled out one of the needles by mistake, 
dropping and spilling many stitches, and then, 
all of a sudden the ball of yarn fell to the floor, 
and rolled away. 

“ Oh, I must get that back! ” thought Kittie. 
Softly she sprang after the ball, but it only rolled 
the faster, away in a corner. Kittie kept after it. 
Then her tail got tangled in the yarn, and so did 
her paws. Finally she got the ball, but when she 
tried to wind the yarn up again, she slipped on 
a peppermint candy that had rolled from grand- 
ma’s table, and then — 

Oh, I wish you could have seen how poor Kit- 
tie Kat was all tangled up in that ball of yarn ! 
She wound it around and around herself, up and 


Uncle Wiggily and the Ball of Yarn 143 


down, sideways and through the middle. The 
more she tried to untangle herself the worse she 
became mixed. 

“ Oh, dear! ” thought poor Kittie, but she did 
not cry out loud, for fear of waking Grandma 
Cluck-Cluck. “ Oh, what shall I do? ” 

Tighter and tighter she became entangled in 
the ball of yarn until at last she could stand it no 
longer. She just had to call “ Help ! Help ! 
Help!” 

“ Gracious me ! What’s that ! ” exclaimed 
Grandma, waking up with a start. “ Who is 
it?” 

“ Kittie Kat, if you please,” said the little ani- 
mal girl, “ and I’m all tangled up in your yarn. 
I tried to knit, but I am sorry, for I mixed it all 
up.” 

“ Oh, what a terrible sight ! Come here every- 
body ! ” cried Grandma Cluck-Cluck, and they 
all came running to look at Kittie. Truly she 
was a strange sight, all tangled up in the yarn, 
and she felt quite miserable. 

“ Send for Dr. Possum! ” she begged. “ He 
can untangle me.” 

“ Maybe I can,” offered Uncle Wiggily, who 
had run up with the others. And he tried, but 


144 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


when he pulled on one end of the yarn he pulled 
Kittie’s fur, too, and she cried in pain. 

“ There is no help for it,” said the rabbit gen- 
tleman. “ I must cut the yarn off Kittie.” 

“ But don’t cut her,” said Grandma Cluck- 
Cluck. “ Here are my scissors. Cut the yarn 
but don’t cut Kittie ! ” 

“ I’ll be careful,” promised Uncle Wiggily. 
And he was. “ Snip ! Snip ! ” went the scissors, 
and soon Kittie Kat was free from the tangle 
of yarn, and she could play with her friends 
once more. Uncle Wiggily promised to get 
grandma another ball of yarn, and all was well. 
And the animal children played more games, 
and ate up all the ice cream at the party and then 
went home. 

So in the chapter after this, if the whipped 
cream on the orange pudding doesn’t cry in its 
sleep and awaken the phonograph, I’ll tell you 
about Uncle Wiggily at a fire. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AT A FIRE 

Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” 
called Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat 
lady, to the rabbit gentleman one morning before 
breakfast. “ Come, it is time to get up ! You are 
late ! ” 

Uncle Wiggily did not answer. 

“ That is strange,” thought Nurse Jane. “ I 
wonder if he can have gotten up early and have 
gone out without me knowing it? Oh, you 
Uncle Wiggily ! ” she called, still louder. 

This time she heard a groan up in the rabbit 
gentleman’s room. 

“ Oh, what is the matter? ” cried the muskrat 
lady. “ Has anything happened, Uncle Wig- 
gily? ” 

“ Yes,” he answered. “ I am too ill to come 
down to breakfast this morning. I think I have 
the goose pip, or the hen epizootic ; I can’t tel] 
which.” 


145 


146 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ Oh, mercy me and the potato masher! ” ex- 
claimed Nurse Jane. “We must have Dr. Pos- 
sum in at once. I’ll go for him ! ” 

Away she ran, dragging her long tail after 
her, for Nurse Jane did not take the time to stop 
and do her tail up in curl-papers as she some- 
times did. 

“ Quick, Dr. Possum ! ” she called, when she 
reached his office. “ Come to Uncle Wiggily at 
once. He hasn’t been down to his breakfast and 
maybe he has the pip or epizootic — or both.” 

“ That is dreadful ! ” said the possum gentle- 
man. “ IT1 come right away.” 

And when he got to Uncle Wiggily’s house, 
and felt of the rabbit’s ears, and made him twin- 
kle his nose, to see how well he could do it, Dr. 
Possum said : 

“ Well, you are quite ill, my dear, old rabbit 
friend, but I think I can cure you. I will give 
you a few green pills and some red ones and a 
little yellow powder and some purple medicine 
to drink, and then you will be all well.” 

“ Mercy ! All that stuff to take ! ” cried Uncle 
Wiggily. “ I had rather be ill than do that.” 

But he kept on feeling worse, so when Dr. 
Possum took all the strangely colored medicines 
out of his satchel, Uncle Wiggily was glad 


Uncle Wiggily at a Fire 


147 


enough to take some of them, beginning with a 
green pill and ending up with a pink powder. 

In fact, he had so many medicines and they 
were of such different colors that, when they 
were spread out on his table by his bed, Nurse 
Jane exclaimed : 

“ Why, that looks just like a rainbow or a lot 
of Easter eggs.” 

“ Well, I hope they don’t make me feel like a 
rainbow,” said Uncle Wiggily, smiling sort of 
sadly-like. 

Dr. Possum took off his glasses and put them 
in his pocket. Then he said : 

“ Oh, I forgot. While you are ill, Uncle Wig- 
gily, I want you to drink nothing but seltzer 
water.” 

“Seltzer water! What is that, pray tell?” 
asked the rabbit, curious-like. 

“ Seltzer water is just like soda water, only it 
hasn’t any sweet stuff or ice cream in it,” ex- 
plained Dr. Possum. “ It comes in big bottles, 
with shiny tops and a handle to push and ” 

“ Oh, I know about that ! ” interrupted Nurse 
J ane. “ Seltzer water comes from the dru g store, 
and when you press down on the shiny handle 
on top of the bottle the seltzer water squirts all 
over, and foams and sizzes like anything.” 


148 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ Exactly,” agreed Dr. Possum. “ And I want 
that for Uncle Wiggily. He must have seltzer 
water.” 

So Nurse Jane went to the drug store for some, 
and when she came back with it the rabbit gentle- 
man was asleep. He felt a little better when he 
awakened, but he was still quite ill. 

“ Now,” said Nurse Jane, that afternoon, “ I 
have to go out to the store to get something for 
supper. Do you think you will be all right alone, 
by yourself, Wiggy, or shall I get Grandfather 
Goosey Gander to come in and stay with you 
until I come back? ” 

“ Oh, I am well enough to stay by myself,” 
said Uncle Wiggily. “ I have all my medicines 
where I can reach them, and my bottle of fizzy 
seltzer water as well.” Then he squirted a little 
of the sparkling, bubbling soda water into a 
glass and drank it; he drank the water, not the 
glass, you know. 

So Nurse Jane went to the store, and Unde 
Wiggily was left alone in the hollow stump 
house. But he was not alone long, for pretty 
soon Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, who had 
heard that his uncle was ill, came to visit him. 

“ I am glad to see you, Sammie,” said Uncle 


Uncle Wiggily at a Fire 


149 


Wiggily. “ It is very good of you to come and 
call on me.” 

“ You always come to see me when I am sick,” 
spoke Sammie, “ so I come to see you. And I 
have brought you some marshmallow candies. 
Wouldn’t you like one roasted, Uncle Wig- 
gily? ” 

“ Well, maybe it would be good for me,” said 
the rabbit gentleman. “ Dr. Possum said noth- 
ing about them, but we might try one. I can’t 
feel much worse, whatever I take.” 

“ Then I’ll go down to the kitchen stove, while 
Nurse Jane is out, and roast one for you,” said 
Sammie, very proud and glad indeed that he 
could do something for Uncle Wiggily. 

There was a good, hot fire in the kitchen stove 
of the hollow stump house. Taking one of the 
candy marshmallows Sammie stuck it on a fork 
and held it over the coals. 

Soon it began to brown nicely, and smelled 
most scumptiously, if you will kindly allow me 
to say so. 

And then something happened. The marsh- 
mallow candy began to melt, and run off the 
fork into the fire. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Sammie, as soon as he saw 
it. 


150 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Then something else happened. 

The marshmallow candy caught fire. How it 
blazed up, and Sammie cried: “Oh, me! oh, 
my ! ” Then he quickly pulled back the blazing 
candy away from over the fire, and — something 
else happened. 

The blazing candy fell on the floor, and set 
fire to the oilcloth. What a lot of smoke there 
was! It rolled up, and the flames began to 
crackle, and Sammie cried : 

“ Fire ! Fire ! Fire ! Come on, you water- 
bugs, and help put out the fire! ” 

But there were no water-bugs there, and the 
fire blazed hotter. 

Upstairs, in bed, Uncle Wiggily heard it. He 
heard Sammie crying, and he smelled the smoke. 

“ Ha! The house is on fire! ” exclaimed the 
rabbit gentleman. “ I must put it out! But 
how? I can’t get down to the kitchen to turn on 
the water in the sink. There is too much smoke.” 
Then he saw his bottle of seltzer water. “ The 
very thing ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. “ That 
is as good as a fire engine.” 

Out of bed, ill as he was, he jumped, catching 
up the bottle of fizzy soda water. Down the 
stairs he went until he was near the kitchen, and 


Uncle Wiggily at a Fire 


151 


he pressed on the shiny handle, and squirted all 
the bubbling water in the bottle on the fire. 

“ Fizz ! ” went the seltzer water. “ Hiss ! ” 
went the fire like a snake, and in a minute it was 
all out, and the kitchen was hardly burned at all. 
Wasn’t that good? 

“ Oh, I am so sorry ! ” cried Sammie. “ It was 
all my fault for dropping the blazing marsh- 
mallow.” 

“ Never mind, you meant it for the best,” said 
Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “ And I feel much bet- 
ter. I think the fire cured me.” And so it had, 
and he didn’t have to take any more seltzer water 
or green pills. 

And in chapter twenty, if the candlestick 
doesn’t walk upstairs and tickle the wax doll, so 
she sneezes and wakes up the gold fish, I’ll tell 
you about Uncle Wiggily and the wagon sleds. 


CHAPTER XIX 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WAGON SLEDS 

One day, when Uncle Wiggily, the nice old 
rabbit gentleman, was out taking a walk, he 
came to the house where Jackie and Peetie Bow 
Wow, the puppy dog boys lived. This was a 
little while after the fire in the hollow stump 
bungalow, which the rabbit uncle had put out by 
squirting the seltzer water on it, as I told you in 
the story just before this one. 

“ I think I will go in and see Peetie and 
Jackie,” said Uncle Wiggily to himself. “ I 
have not called on them in some time, and a little 
rest will do me good after my walk.” 

Into the doggies’ house went the rabbit gentle- 
man, but when he got there he saw a strange 
sight. For, off in one corner sat Peetie, and oh ! 
what a scowly-owly look was on Peetie’s face. 
And in another corner was Jackie Bow Wow, 
and on his face was an even worse scowly-owly 
look. 

“ Why, whatever is the matter? ” asked Uncle 

152 


Uncle Wiggily and the Wagon Sleds 153 


Wiggily in surprise. “ Have you both the tooth- 
ache, boys? ” 

“ No, they have not,” said Mrs. Bow Wow 
coming in just then from the kitchen where she 
was baking some dog biscuits and puppy cakes. 
“ No, Uncle Wiggily, I am sorry to say that 
Jackie and Peetie are rather naughty.” 

“ Naughty — you amaze me! ” exclaimed the 
rabbit. “ Why, what has happened? ” 

“ It’s all on account of the weather,” went on 
Mrs. Bow Wow. As for Jackie and Peetie they 
didn’t even speak to Uncle Wiggily, and usually 
they were so fond of him. But it was just because 
they were cross and unpleasant ; that’s all. They 
weren’t their real selves, you see. 

“ On account of the weather, eh? ” went on 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Why, I don’t see anything 
the matter with it. The sun is shining, there is 
no snow, and ” 

“ That’s just the trouble! ” burst out Jackie. 
“ There is no snow, and we want to go coasting 
with our sleds, and we can’t go ! ” 

“It’s — it’s just — mean — that’s what it is!” 
said Peetie, and he looked so crossly at a little 
fuzzy bug that was crawling on his tail that the 
poor little bug jumped off and nearly sprained 
one of his legs. 


154 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“Hoity-toity!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “So 
you boys think the weather man had made all 
this trouble; eh? Why can’t you do something 
else besides riding down hill? ” 

“ We don’t want to,” said Peetie. “ We want 
to play with our sleds, but we can’t slide down 
on bare ground; can we, Uncle Wiggily? ” 

“ No, I suppose not,” said the rabbit gentle- 
man, slowly. “ But how would you like to come 
for a ride in my automobile? That can go down 
hill, whether there is any snow on the ground or 
not. Do you want that? ” 

“ Nope ! ” said Peetie. 

“Nope! ” said Jackie, and they both looked 
very cross and unpleasant. I guess they were 
unhappy, too, and maybe a bit sorry, but some- 
times, you see, when you get in the way of being 
naughty, it’s hard to get back into the way of 
being good again. 

I guess you know how it is yourself. I don’t 
mean you, exactly, but perhaps you’ve seen some 
one who was that way — like Peetie and Jackie. 

“ Hum ! Well ! ” said Uncle Wiggily, slowly. 
He did not know just what to make of this. 
Peetie and Jackie had never acted so before. 

Then the old rabbit gentleman had a new 
idea. There came a twinkle into his red eyes, 


Uncle Wiggily and the Wagon Sleds 155 


and even his nose blinkled and twinkled, and he 
said: 

“ Well, boys, if I could fix it so you could slide 
down hill on your sleds, even if there is no snow 
on the ground, would you like that? ” 

“ Yes, I know we would,” said Jackie, and he 
smiled the least little bit, but not much. 

“ Only it can’t be done,” said Peetie, and then 
he felt that he was not acting just right, so he 
looked on the floor for the little fuzzy bug he 
had made jump off his tail. And then he found 
the little creature, and lifted him back on his tail 
again, and made it twist very fast, like a merry- 
go-round, and the little bug was quite happy, 
which shows you that Peetie was not bad all the 
way through — only in spots, like a specked 
apple. 

“ Well,” said Uncle Wiggily, slowly. “ Fm 
not saying that it is an easy thing to make a sled 
that will go down hill on the bare ground, with- 
out snow. But I can try it.” 

“ Just see how kind your Uncle Wiggily is to 
you,” said Mrs. Bow Wow. “ Aren’t you sorry 
you were naughty? ” 

“ Yes, I guess so,” spoke Jackie. “ But I’d 
like to see that new sled, first.” 

“ Well, I’ll go out in your barn and make it,” 


156 


Uncle Wiggily Lon gears 


said the rabbit gentleman. “ Where are your 
regular sleds? ” 

“ Here! ” cried Jackie and Peetie eagerly, as 
they brought them to Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Well, now you stay here until you hear me 
whistle,” spoke the rabbit gentlemen, “ and by 
that time the sleds will be ready for you and you 
can ride down hill, even if there is no snow.” 

Uncle Wiggily went out to the barn, and what 
do you think he did? Why he took some wheels 
off the two old baby-dog carriages he found out 
there, and he fastened four wheels to Peetie’s 
sled and four wheels to Jackie’s. And when you 
sat on the sleds you could roll down a hill as 
nicely as in an automobile, and you could easily 
pretend it was winter, and that there was snow 
on the ground, for there were the sleds, runners 
and everything. 

Uncle Wiggily whistled, and out came run- 
ning Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow. They saw 
the wagon sleds Uncle Wiggily had made for 
them, and they said : 

“ Oh, thank you so much ! ” and they didn’t 
scowl any more, and I guess they were sorry for 
having been cross, just because there was no 
snow. Mind, Fm not saying for sure, but maybe. 

“ Now, for a good coast ! ” cried Peetie. 


Uncle Wiggily and the Wagon Sleds 157 


“ Hurray! ” cried Jackie. 

Not far away was a little hill, and soon the two 
puppy dog boys were riding down this on their 
wagon sleds that had baby-dog carriage wheels 
fast to them. Oh, what fun they had ! 

Then along came Sammie Littletail, the rabbit 
boy, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, 
and many other animal children, and when they 
saw the wagon sleds Uncle Wiggily had made 
they all said : 

“ Oh ! ” just like that. 

Peetie and Jackie let their friends take turns 
on the new wagon sleds that were good, even if 
there was no snow, and all the boy animals said 
they were going to make some sleds of their own 
next day. And I guess they did. 

And next, if the penwiper doesn’t go out on 
the front stoop and pretend that it’s the doormat, 
to fool the letter man, I’ll tell you about Uncle 
Wiggily finding lost Sammie Littletail. 


CHAPTER XX 


UNCLE WIGGILY FINDS SAMMY 

One day, when Uncle Wiggily Longears, the 
rabbit gentleman was near to the house in the 
woods where Sammie and Susie Littletail, the 
rabbit children lived, he heard Mrs. Little- 
tail calling out of the window : 

“ Sammie ! Sammie ! Come here, I want you 
to go to the store for me.” 

“All right, mamma; right away,” answered 
Sammie, very politely; and, though he was play- 
ing a game of snow tag with Billie Bushytail, 
the boy squirrel, Sammie didn’t ask his mamma 
to wait a minute, or a half hour or so, before he 
went to the store. He came hopping over right 
away, his big ears flopping backward and for- 
ward, too funny for anything. 

“ What do you want from the store, 
Mamma? ” asked Sammie, after he had shaken 
paws with Uncle Wiggily. 

“ I want a loaf of bread and a nice head of let- 
tuce,” said the rabbit lady. 

158 


Uncle Wiggily Finds Sammy 159 


“ You’ll stay to supper, won’t you, Uncle Wig- 
gily? ” she asked. “ I’ll make you some nice let- 
tuce sandwiches, with slices of carrot between 
the lettuce leaves.” 

“ Oh, I think I must stay, after that,” laughed 
Uncle Wiggily. “ It sounds very nice indeed. 
Ah! Um! Lettuce and carrots. But I told 
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy that I’d be back, and 
she may keep a meal for me.” 

“ We can send her word not to wait for you,” 
said Mrs. Littletail. “ Here comes Dickie Chip- 
Chip, the sparrow boy, flying along. He’ll 
leave a message with Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy that 
you’re going to stay here to tea.” 

“ Very well,” agreed Uncle Wiggily, and 
Dickie, the sparrow boy, very kindly said he 
would tell the muskrat lady, who kept house for 
Uncle Wiggily, not to expect him home. 

Away flew Dickie, but when Mrs. Littletail 
looked around there was her boy Sammie still 
standing there. 

“ Why, Sammie ! ” she cried, rather surprised- 
like. “ Haven’t you gone to the store yet? 
Didn’t I give you the money? ” 

“ Oh, yes, mamma,” he answered, “ but I was 
thinking you might like to order something else. 
Maybe some molasses, or sugar, so Susie and I 


160 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


could make candy after supper. You like 
candy; don’t you, Uncle Wiggily?” he asked, 
sort of wrinkling up his little nose. That meant 
Uncle Wiggily was to say “ yes! ” 

“ Oh, indeed I do like candy ! ” exclaimed the 
rabbit gentleman, with a twinkle in his eyes. He 
saw right away what Sammie was up to, the little 
rascal. 

“ Oh, I do declare! ” laughed Mrs. Littletail. 
“ Well, you may get some molasses, Sammie. I 
have plenty of sugar, and you and Susie may 
have a candy-pull after supper.” 

You may be sure Sammie hopped on to the 
store very quickly then, and very happily, too. 
Not that he wouldn’t have gone happily if his 
mamma had not let him get the molasses, but 
now that he and his sister Susie were going to 
make candy — oh! he felt so good and jolly! 

Along he hopped, and soon he was at the store, 
where he bought the bread, lettuce and molasses. 

“ I guess you are going to have something 
good at your house to-night, Sammie,” said the 
mouse gentleman, who kept the store. 

“Indeed we are!” laughed the little rabbit 
boy, and then he hopped on toward home. But 
he didn’t get there; at least not for some time, 
and something dreadful happened to him. 


Uncle Wiggily Finds Sammy 161 


I’ll tell you all about it, but I have to begin at 
the other end — I mean the Uncle Wiggily end. 

The old rabbit gentleman sat, in the hollow 
stump house, talking to Mrs. Littletail for some 
time. He spoke about the weather, and how 
soon it would be spring, with nice tender juicy 
green things growing to eat. 

Pretty soon in came Susie Littletail. She had 
been playing with her girl animal friends. 

“ I guess it’s time for me to help you set the 
table, mamma,” said Susie, and she began at 
once to put on the white birch-bark plates and 
the wooden knives and forks. 

“ I wonder what keeps Sammie? ” said Mrs. 
Littletail, after a bit, looking out of the window 
of the hollow stump house several times. “ He 
should be here by this time.” 

“ Perhaps he stopped on the way to have a 
game of tag,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ Animal 
boys often do that.” 

“ Sammie wouldn’t, without telling me,” said 
his mamma. “ I am afraid something has hap- 
pened to him.” 

“ Oh, don’t worry,” said Uncle Wiggily, 
kindly. But Mrs. Littletail did worry, just the 
same. I guess all mammas do, animals or real. 

Well, it grew later and later, and Sammie 


162 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


didn’t come. It grew dark, and still he was not 
home. Suppertime came, and, though no one 
felt much like eating, they all sat down. Mrs. 
Littletail had to go next door to borrow some 
bread and lettuce, for Sammie had not come 
home wtih the things from the store, you see. 

“ Oh, I’m sure something has happened to 
him! ” cried Mrs. Littletail. “ Poor Sammie! ” 

“ I’ll go find him,” said Uncle Wiggily. He 
took a bottle with some last year’s fireflies in for 
a lantern. The lightning bugs gave a good 
light. 

The rabbit gentleman looked all over for Sam- 
mie, through the woods and over the fields, flash- 
ing his lantern all about. But he could not find 
the little rabbit boy. 

“ I’ll go back to the store where he was and 
start from there to search,” said Uncle Wiggily. 
So he did, looking very carefully along the way. 
There were sidewalks in the part of the woods 
where the store was built, and Uncle Wiggily 
looked on the walks to see if he could find any 
signs of Sammie. 

And then, all of a sudden, right by a big hole 
through which the coal man used to put the coal 
for a rich groundhog gentleman who lived 
there — right by that coal hole Uncle Wiggily 


Uncle Wiggily Finds Sammy 163 


saw some molasses — stick molasses, on the pave- 
ment. 

“ I believe Sammie has fallen down the coal 
hole ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. “ Are you 
down there, Sammie? ” he called. “ Are you 
there? ” 

“Yes, I’m here!” answered poor Sammie. 
“ And I’ve been asleep, I guess, waiting for some 
one to come and help me out. I can’t get out my- 
self, though I fell in all by myself.” 

Then Uncle Wiggily went into the ground- 
hog gentleman’s house, and told about Sammie 
being down in the coal hole, and they let the 
rabbit boy come up the inside cellar way. Sam- 
mie wasn’t hurt a bit, for there was soft coal in 
the coal hole, and it doesn’t harm one to fall on 
that. 

“ How did you get in the hole? ” asked Uncle 
Wiggily, as he brushed the black dust off Sam- 
mie, and took him home. 

“ Why,” said the little rabbit boy. “ I was 
walking along, thinking what a good time Susie 
and I would have making the molasses candy, 
and I didn’t see that the coal hole was open, so 
I stepped right into it. I tried to get out, and I 
couldn’t. I called for help, but no one heard 
me, and then I fell asleep — and you came.” 


164 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ Yes, but only that I happened to see some 
molasses on the sidewalk where you spilled it, I 
might never have known you were there,” said 
the rabbit gentleman. 

Then everybody was happy because lost Sam- 
mie was found, and he and Susie made forty- 
’leven sticks of molasses candy, and that’s all to 
this story. 

But in chapter twenty-one, in case the rubber 
doll doesn’t stretch up to the ceiling and bite a 
hole in the wall paper, where the canary bird can 
hide, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the 
butterfly. 


CHAPTER XXI 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERFLY 

“ Have you heard the news? ” asked Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, of Uncle Wiggily Long- 
ears, the rabbit gentleman, one morning as he 
was about to start off on an automobile ride. 

“ News? What news? ” he asked. “ I hope 
that boy rabbit, Sammie Littletail, hasn’t fallen 
down any more coal holes.” 

“ No, it isn’t that,” went on the muskrat lady 
who kept house for Uncle Wiggily. “ But Lulu 
Wibblewobble, the duck girl, is very ill. She 
can hardly quack, so her sister Alice said when 
she went past a little while ago to get some 
medicine from Dr. Possum.” 

“ Ha! That is too bad,” said Uncle Wiggily. 
“ What is the matter with her? ” 

“ Corn meal fever,” answered Nurse Jane. 

“ I will go over and see Lulu,” said Uncle 
Wiggily. 

So instead of going over to call on Grand- 
father Goosey Gander, and playing a game of 
165 


166 Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Scotch checkers with the old gentleman goose, 
as he intended doing, Uncle Wiggily started for 
the pen where Lulu and Alice and Jimmie 
Wibblewobble lived. 

And the rabbit gentleman found Lulu a very 
ill little duck girl indeed. Not only did she have 
corn meal fever, but she had such a pain in her 
bill that she could not quack. 

“ I’m not going to take it! I won’t swallow 
that bitter medicine ! ” cried Lulu as Uncle Wig- 
gily went in. “ I won’t take it ! I won’t ! ” 

“ But, Lulu, you must,” said Mrs. Wibble- 
wobble, kindly. “ It will make you better.” 

“ I don’t want to be better! ” said Lulu, and 
some tears came into her eyes and ran down her 
yellow bill, splashing on the bedspread. 

You see Lulu didn’t mean to act that way. 
Only she felt so miserable that she really didn’t 
know what she was saying. But she would not 
take her medicine, and Mrs. Wibblewobble 
didn’t know what to do. 

“ Perhaps she will take it for me,” said Uncle 
Wiggily, for usually the animal children would 
do anything for their rabbit uncle. 

“ No, I can’t swallow that bitter medicine! ” 
sobbed Lulu. “I can’t! I won’t!” 

“ Maybe I can put a little sugar in it, so it 


Uncle Wiggily and the Butterfly 167 


won’t be so bad,” said Uncle Wiggily, speaking 
sort of sweetly and kindly — like soothing syrup. 

“ No, mamma tried that — it only makes it 
worse ! ” Lulu answered. “ Oh, I had rather be 
sick than take medicine ! ” 

Well, they didn’t know what to do, for Dr. 
Possum had said Lulu must take the medicine 
if she was to get well. And you know medicine 
is very bitter, sometimes. 

And often, the more bitter it is, the better it is 
for you. 

But, no matter what they did, Lulu would not 
take the medicine, and she was getting worse all 
the while. 

“ I’ll take this medicine back to Dr. Possum 
and get him to fix it so it won’t taste so badly,” 
the rabbit gentleman said, finally, and off he 
started in his automobile. 

But, as it happened, Dr. Possum was away, 
and would not be back that night, having been 
called to take care of Mr. Stubtail, the bear 
gentleman, who was stuck fast in a hollow log 
and could not get out. 

“ I’ve just got to make Lulu take that medi- 
cine, bitter or not, the way it is,” thought Uncle 
Wiggily. “ Bitter or not, she must take it.” And 


168 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


yet he did not want to have to hold her head and 
force open her bill and pour it down, the way 
you have to do with some children I’ve heard of. 
And some of them didn’t have to take bitter medi- 
cine, either, but nice, little, sweet pills. 

Well, Uncle Wiggily was going along in his 
auto, wondering how he could get Lulu to take 
her medicine, when, all of a sudden, in a nice, 
sunny corner of a fence, he saw something that 
looked like a little, long, round ball, colored 
gray, and made fast to a board. 

“ I know what that is ! ” cried the rabbit gentle- 
man. “ I can take that home to Lulu and tell her 
it is a wonderful trick, and if she watches it she 
will see something strange come out of it. Then 
she may not think about the bad medicine and we 
can get her to swallow it.” 

So, very gently, the rabbit gentleman picked 
off the soft little gray ball and carried it to the 
duck house with him. 

“ Now, Lulu,” he said, “ here is a wonderful 
trick I have found. It is more wonderful than 
any you ever saw done at the circus, or in a mov- 
ing picture show. If you will watch this little 
ball, which is called a cocoon, you will see some- 
thing strange come out of it, and fly around.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Butterfly 169 


“ Really? ” asked Lulu, and she felt a little 
better at once. 

“ Really,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ Now I will 
put it here on the shelf, by the side of your bed, 
and you can watch it. Watch it very, very 
closely, now.” 

You see Uncle Wiggily wanted to get Lulu’s 
thoughts away from herself and her illness. 

The little duck girl looked at the cocoon very 
carefully. So carefully, in fact, that she did not 
see Uncle Wiggily pour out some of the bitter 
medicine. And when he said, very suddenly, 
close to her: “Here, Lulu, drink this!” she 
drank it before she thought. 

“ Why, that’s my bitter medicine ! ” she cried, 
in surprise, as she swallowed it. “ And it didn’t 
taste so very bitter after all.” 

“ I thought you imagined a great deal of it,” 
said Uncle Wiggily with a twinkle in his nose. 
“ Now lie down and go to sleep, but don’t forget 
to watch the cocoon.” 

Lulu didn’t forget and soon, as she watched 
it, to see what would come out, her eyes grew 
more and more heavy, until at last they closed, 
and she slept, for the medicine stopped her pain. 

And when she awoke she saw the cocoon mov- 


17C 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


ing. And then it seemed to split open, and lo and 
behold ! all of a sudden out came the most beau- 
tiful butterfly she had ever seen. His wings were 
golden and brown and red and green and yellow. 
At first the butterfly could not flutter at all well, 
for he was like a new puppy dog, or a kittie cat 
— very weak. 

But soon he grew stronger, and could fly all 
about the room and he flew, here and there, high 
and low, and lighted on Lulu’s head, and she 
laughed and flapped her wings. 

“ And it really came out of the cocoon — I saw 
it ! ” she cried. 

“ It really did,” laughed Uncle Wiggily. “ I 
saw that the butterfly was almost ready to come 
out, so I brought him into this warm house to 
make him appear more quickly.” Then the 
rabbit gentleman told Lulu how first a worm 
spins a cocoon for itself, to sleep in until Mother 
Nature turns it into a beautiful butterfly, when it 
leaves its cocoon house. 

Lulu didn’t mind taking bitter medicine after 
she had the butterfly to watch, and soon she was 
all better and did not have to take any kind of 
powders or pills. 

So that’s the story of Uncle Wiggily and the 



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Uncle Wiggily and the Butterfly 171 


butterfly, and, in the next chapter, if the lead 
pencil doesn’t walk up the white wall, and make 
a picture of a monkey sliding down hill I’ll tell 
you about Uncle Wiggily and the slipping 
horsie. 


CHAPTER XXII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SLIPPING HORSIE 

Out in the street, in front of their houses, all 
the animal children were having fun sliding on a 
slippery place, one wintry day. There was a 
little light, powdery snow, which had fallen from 
the clouds and when you took a run, and then 
held your legs stiff, you would slide ever so far. 
And the more you slid on the slide the more slip- 
pery it became. 

Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, John- 
nie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, Tommie 
and Joie and Kittie Kat, Charlie and Arabella 
Chick — even Alice and Lulu and Jimmie Wib- 
blewobble, the ducks, were all out sliding. 
Lulu, who had been ill, was all better now, hav- 
ing taken her bitter medicine while watching a 
butterfly come out from his cocoon, as I told you 
in the story before this one. 

“ Let’s see who can slide the farthest ! ” cried 
Sammie Littletail, as he reached the top of the 
slippery place, after a fine, long slide. 

“ I think I can! ” said Jimmie Wibblewobble. 
172 


Uncle Wiggily and the Slipping Horsie 173 


So they took turns, and what do you think 
happened? Why, when it was the turn of 
Buddy, the little guinea pig boy, he slid so fast 
that his feet shot out from under him, and down 
he came “ ker-thump.” And instead of sliding 
on his paws, as he should have done, he slid on 
his back, but he went farther thah any of the 
others, away around the corner by the black 
stump. 

“ Oh, Buddy wins ! Buddy wins ! ” cried all 
the animal children, so Buddy felt happy, even if 
he had fallen down. 

Well the little animals went on sliding, faster 
and faster, and farther and farther, just as beavers 
ride down hill on a slippery muddy river bank, 
and Sammie Littletail made up a singing verse 
which went something like this : 

“ When you run and slip and slide, 

You will have a dandy ride. 

Keep yourself upon your toes, 

Or you’ll fall and bump your nose ! ” 

Well, the animal children sang that song over 
and over again, all the time slipping and slid- 
ing, until the slippery place was so very slippery 
that nearly every one, who stepped on it, fell 


174 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


down. Then the animals boys and girls made 
more sliding places, and had so much fun that it 
would take me a week, or maybe a week and a 
half, for all I know, to tell you about it. 

Then Charlie Chick cried : 

“ Oh, let’s build a snow fort, and have a snow 
battle, with soft snowballs, so no one will get 
hurt! ” 

“ Oh, let’s ! ” cried all the others. So they ran 
over to the fields, where there was plenty of snow 
left from the last storm, and they left the slid- 
ing, slippery places in the street, for of course 
they couldn’t take them along to the snow fort ; 
could they? 

Well, a little while after this, who should come 
along but Gup, the kind old horse gentleman, 
who once gave Buddy Pigg a ride on his back, 
at night, to go after Dr. Possum, who was wanted 
to cure Mr. Pigg. Mr. Pigg had the epizootic, 
I think it was, or maybe the rheumatism, as 
Uncle Wiggily had. 

Now Gup was a very kind horse. He was al- 
ways helping some one, and this time, as he was 
on his way home, from having been over to see 
Dottie and Munchie Trot, the pony children, 
Gup saw a poor old mule, trying to draw a load 
of coal up a hill. 


Uncle Wiggily and the Slipping Horsie 175 


Now the mule was in the coal business, and he 
sold coal to all the other animals, drawing it to 
their burrows, or hollow stumps, or hollow logs 
— wherever the animals lived, in fact. 

And, as this mule was poor he did not have 
much to eat, so he was not strong, and could not 
pull a very big load. 

And as it happened, Mr. Groundhog, the rich 
animal gentleman, had ordered a very big load 
of coal that day. It was down in Mr. Ground- 
hog’s coal hole, you remember, that Sammie 
Littletail once fell when he was coming home 
with the molasses. 

Well, this poor old mule had all he could do 
to drag the load of coal, and when Gup, the kind 
horsie, came along and saw the mule struggling 
up a slippery hill, Gup said: 

“ You trot along home, Mr. Mule. I’ll drag 
this load of coal the rest of the way for you.” 

“ Thank you kindly, Gup,” spoke the gentle- 
man mule, and he was glad to get home a little 
earlier than usual, as his little girl was ill. 

So Gup began to drag the load of coal, and 
pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, 
he came to the foot of the hill on the street where 
all the animal children had been sliding. Gup 
started up the hill, with the load of coal, but he 


176 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


had not gone very far before he came to a slip- 
per slide, and down he went, falling heavily. 

“Ugh!” grunted poor Gup, as he tumbled 
down, losing his breath as he fell, just as Aunt 
Piffy, the fat bear lady, used to do. And Gup 
hurt his leg, too. 

But he was a brave horsie, so he arose as best 
he could and started off again to deliver the coal 
to Mr. Groundhog. 

Well, he hadn’t gone on very far before he 
came to another slippery place, the same one 
where Buddy Pigg had stumbled and fallen in 
making his long slide. 

Down went poor Gup again ! 

“ Ugh! ” he grunted. “ This is hard work! ” 
But he managed to get up again, and once more 
started off. But he slipped and slid worse and 
worse, on the slippery, sliding places, and 
finally he could not go another step. 

He thought he would have to go back, but he 
did not like to do that, as he had promised Mr. 
Mule to deliver the coal. And just then Uncle 
Wiggily, the rabbit gentleman, came along. 
He had been to the barber’s to be shaved. He 
saw what trouble Gup was in, and Uncle Wig- 
gily said : 

“ I’ll help you pull the coal, Gup.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Slipping Horsie 177 


Well, the rabbit gentleman tried to help, but 
he, too, slipped and stumbled, and both he and 
Gup fell down. 

“ Oh, we can never do it! ” cried the slipping 
horsie. 

“ Yes, we can! ” said Uncle Wiggily. “ You 
just wait ! ” So he ran to his bungalow, which 
was not far off in a hollow stump, and he brought 
out some pieces of sandpaper, such as a carpenter 
uses to make wood smooth. Sandpaper is very 
rough, and never slips on ice, you know. 

“ We will tie some pieces of sandpaper on our 
feet,” said Uncle Wiggily to Gup, “ and then we 
can pull the load of coal.” 

So they tied some sandpaper on their feet. 
Then they started off again, and they could cross 
the most slippery places of the children’s slides 
without falling down. 

The sandpaper was the same as when you put 
on a pair of new rubbers, you see — the rabbit and 
horsie did not slip when the sharp, rough surface 
of the sand took hold of the ice and snow. 

On they went with the load of coal, and soon 
it was put in Mr. Groundhog’s cellar, and Gup 
could go home, after having done Mr. Mule such 
a kindness. 

But before Uncle Wiggily went home he told 


178 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Sammie Littletail, and all the animal boys and 
girls that it would be better never to make slip- 
pery, sliding places in the middle of the street, 
where horsies have to go. For sometimes horses 
are very badly hurt when they fall down. 

So Sammie and all his friends promised to 
slide only on the sides of streets, near the gutters, 
and they sprinkled ashes on the slides they had 
made, so no more horses would slip. Then they 
all went home to supper, and that’s the end of 
this story. 

But in the next chapter, if the milkman doesn’t 
take our clothesline to make a catscradle for his 
puppy dog, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and 
the March wind. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MARCH WIND 

My how the wind did blow! It whistled 
down the chimney, and around the corner of 
the hollow stump bungalow where Uncle Wig- 
gily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived, and 
it almost blew the bungalow over into the next 
street. 

“ This is a terrible wind ! ” exclaimed Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, as she 
came in from having been in the yard hanging 
up the clothes. It was so windy, in fact, that no 
blackbird could have come along to nip off her 
nose, as happened to the maid in the garden, of 
whom you can read in your Mother Goose book. 
And anyhow, even if the wind had blown so hard 
that a blackbird could not come along, I don’t 
believe one would have nipped off the nose of 
Nurse Jane, for she was too good and kind. 

Besides, I don’t believe Nurse Jane would have 
allowed a blackbird to nip off her nose, even if 
the bird wanted to. 


179 


180 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


Anyhow, the muskrat lady came in from hang- 
ing out the clothes, and she was almost blown 
away by the wind, and the clothes were too, but 
not quite, I’m glad to say. Nurse J ane saw Uncle 
Wiggily putting on his tall hat and his fur coat. 

“ What, you are not going out, are you? ” 
asked the muskrat lady. 

“ Yes,” answered Uncle Wiggily. “ I am 
going out, Nurse Jane if you please.” 

“ But you’ll be blown away, surely ! ” cried 
Nurse Jane. “ Why, this wind will blow off your 
ears ! ” 

“ Oh, I guess not! ” cried Uncle Wiggily with 
a jolly laugh. “ My ears are fastened on too 
tightly. But I must go out for I promised Grand- 
father Goosey Gander that I would come over 
and play a game of Scotch checkers with him, 
and I must go, wind or no wind.” 

Well, Nurse Jane tried to keep Uncle Wiggily 
at home, but he would not stay, no matter what 
the muskrat lady said. 

“ Then listen to this song, Uncle Wiggily,” 
said Nurse J ane. And she sang : 

“ The North doth blow, 

And we shall have snow, 

And what will the robin do then, poor thing? 


Uncle Wiggily and the March Wind 181 


He’ll hide in the barn, 

To keep himself warm, 

And put his head under his wing, poor thing? ” 

“ Well, that is a very cold and shivery sort of 
song,” the rabbit gentleman said, “ but still I 
think I shall go out for all that. I am not afraid.” 

So out he went into the March wind, and the 
wind seemed quite glad to meet Uncle Wiggily. 
It rushed up to him, and not only shook his paws, 
but his ears as well. 

“ My! That is a rough sort of welcome! ” 
cried the rabbit gentleman as he struggled on. 
The March wind was really blowing harder than 
he had supposed, and he could scarcely get 
along, as the ground was so slippery from the 
snow. 

Then all of a sudden the wind howled up and 
down the rabbit gentleman’s back, and it almost 
blew off his tall hat ! Uncle Wiggily had to make 
a grab for it with his paws, and while he was 
doing that he happened to let go of his rheu- 
matism crutch, and the wind laughed: “Ha! 
Ha ! ” and swept the crutch away over into a 
snow bank. 

“ Now that is too bad,” cried Uncle Wiggily, 
“ for it is so slippery that I can’t walk without 


182 


Uncle Wiggily Lon gears 


my crutch, and if I begin slipping I may be 
blown so far off, like an ice boat, that I can never 
get back home again.” 

Uncle Wiggily did not know what to do. He 
looked all around, but there seemed to be no one 
to help him. And the March wind, which always 
blows hard in that month — to blow winter away, 
I suppose — the March wind howled louder and 
harder than ever around the rabbit gentleman. 

And this time it did manage to blow away his 
tall hat. Off his head the rabbit’s silk hat went 
sailing, over the tree tops, and it almost took 
Uncle Wiggily’s ears with it. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” the rabbit gentleman cried. 
“ This is terrible ! I should have taken the ad- 
vice of Nurse Jane and stayed at home to-day. 
I’ll be blown to pieces! ” 

And the wind blew harder than ever. Puff! 
Puff ! Puff ! until away it blew Uncle Wiggily’s 
fur coat, flapping it high up in the air. 

“My! My!” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ This is worse and worse ! I myself will surely 
be blown away next time.” 

And that is really what happened. A big puff 
of the March wind came along, a bigger and 
stronger puff than any of the others, and just as 
Uncle Wiggily was standing up on his hind paws 


Uncle Wiggily and the March Wind 183 


to see if he could crawl over and get his crutch 
out of the snow bank — just as he was going to do 
that, the wind caught him, yelling “ Whoop ! ” 
up in the air he went like a balloon, only differ- 
ent, of course. 

“ Oh, this is simply awful ! ” the rabbit gentle- 
man cried, as he felt himself sailing along. “ I 
have been turned into an airship, I guess. Oh, 
if I should hit anything now, what would become 
of me? I would be hurt, I guess.” 

And still the March wind blew Uncle Wig- 
gily along through the air, like a leaf, or a piece 
of paper. The wind did not mean to be unkind, 
you know, for I suppose it thought it was only 
playing with the poor old rabbit gentleman. But 
it was far from being funny for Uncle Wiggily. 

Then, all of a sudden, as he was blowing along 
he felt his paws touch something, and he made a 
grab for it, not knowing what it was. Then he 
felt a rope and he knew what had happened. H e 
had been blown over into some one’s back yard, 
and he had been blown into the clothesline, 
which was the thing he grabbed with his paws. 

“ And I’m going to hold on to the line too.” 
cried Uncle Wiggily. “ If I let go I’ll be blown 
away some more.” So he clung to the clothes 
line, and the wind blew him out just like a table- 


184 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


cloth on the wash line at home. It even blew his 
eyes shut, the wind was so strong. 

Then, after fluttering and flittering on the 
clothesline, like a tablecloth, Uncle Wiggily 
felt the wind getting less strong. He could hang 
straight up and down now, instead of being 
blown out to one side. 

“ Now is the time for me to let myself down, 
and grab hold of something stronger than a 
clothesline,” said Uncle Wiggily. So down he 
dropped, when the wind had died out a little, and 
opening his eyes, which had been blown shut, 
where do you suppose Uncle Wiggily found 
himself? 

Why, right in his own yard! He had been 
blown backward, and right across over Nurse 
Jane’s clothesline, and it was that he had grabbed. 

“ No more March wind for me ! ” cried the 
rabbit gentleman. And then, before the wind 
could blow him away again he ran into the house, 
where he stayed until the storm was over. And 
then Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, found his 
uncle’s tall hat and fur coat, brought them back, 
and all was well again, and Uncle Wiggily was 
happy. 

And in the chapter after this, if the chocolate 


Uncle Wiggily and the March Wind 185 


cake doesn’t go out to the moving picture show 
just when company are coming to tea so they 
have to run after it with the egg beater, I’ll tell 
you about Uncle Wiggily and the snow plow. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SNOW PLOW 

“ There, I knew it Vwould happen 1 ” ex- 
claimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy- Wuzzy, the muskrat 
lady, one morning as she looked out of the win- 
dow of the hollow stump house, where she lived 
with Uncle Wiggily, the rabbit gentleman. “ I 
knew it would happen ! ” 

“ What has happened? ” he asked, for he had 
just come downstairs to breakfast, and as yet he 
had hardly glanced out of the window. “ Have 
you broken something, Nurse Jane? ” 

“ No, indeed, I haven’t broken anything,” she 
said. “ But I knew that hard March wind we 
had, that nearly blew you away, would bring 
snow — now it has ; see, it is snowing hard.” 

“ Hum ! So it is ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ I 
guess I had better not go out in this storm,” he 
added. 

“ And I guess the same thing! ” cried Nurse 
Jane. “ I would not let you go out and get cold.” 

So all Uncle Wiggily could do was to sit by the 

i’86 


Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Plow 187 


window and watch the snow flakes sift down out 
of the sky, as if Mother Goose were shaking her 
feather beds. 

It really was quite a hard storm, for it was the 
month of March and the wind blew hard. It was 
almost like a blizzard, the snow being blown into 
big drifts. / 

Now it was not much more fun for Uncle Wig- 
gily to stay in the house all day than it is for you 
boys and girls, or than it was for any of the 
animal children. 

“ I wish it would stop snowing! ” Uncle Wig- 
gily said, over and over again. “ I do so want to 
see Grandfather Goosey Gander, for I have not 
been over in a long while to play Scotch checkers 
with him. The last time I started the big wind 
blew me away, and I haven’t had a chance since 
to call on the goose gentleman.” 

And it did not seem as if he were going to get 
a chance now, for the snow was falling faster 
and thicker, and piling up in big drifts. 

“ Why, I declare, no one is out at all,” went on 
the rabbit gentleman, when he had sat by his win- 
dow for some time, and had not even seen Sam- 
mie Littletail hopping past. And it had to be a 
very hard storm indeed to keep Sammie, the rab- 
bit boy, in, let me tell you. 


188 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ No one would go out to-day who did not 
have to,” said Nurse Jane. “ We are all better off 
in the house when it storms like this.” 

Well, there was nothing else to do, so Uncle 
Wiggily stayed in all day, and he didn’t have a 
chance to see any of his friends. At night he 
went to bed, and in the morning, when he got up, 
the snow had stopped falling. 

But, oh ! How deep it was ! All around the 
hollow stump bungalow house the snow was 
piled, so high that it was almost over Uncle Wig- 
gily’s head. It was banked up on the door steps 
and window sills, so that when Nurse Jane 
opened the front door a lot of snow came in the 
house. 

“ Oh, this is too bad ! ” she exclaimed. “ Now 
we can’t get out to buy anything from the store. 
We are snowed in! ” 

“ Ha ! So we are ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“Ha! Ha!” 

“ Well, I don’t call it anything to laugh at,” 
said Nurse Jane. “ It is far from being funny.” 

“ I was not laughing because we are snowed 
in,” went on the rabbit gentleman, “ but I 
laughed because I just happened to think of a 
way to get out and go to the store, and also visit 
my friends who must likewise be snowed in and 


Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Plow 189 


can’t get out. I’m going to help them to get 
out.” 

“ How, pray tell? ” asked Nurse Jane. 

“ I’ll soon show you,” answered the rabbit 
gentleman, as he went down cellar, where he had 
put his automobile when he found what bad 
weather it was going to be. 

Well, Uncle Wiggily hammered away down 
cellar, and he sawed and pounded, and whistled 
loudlly as he always did when he was happy. 

“ I wonder what he can be making? ” thought 
Nurse Jane. 

She quickly found out, for pretty soon she 
heard a funny noise at the back door, and, when 
she looked she saw Uncle Wiggily’s automobile 
standing in the snow. He had run it right up the 
cellar steps. And the funny part of it was that in 
front of the automobile were fastened some 
boards, coming to a sharp point, like the peaked 
roof of a house, only laid down flat. The sharp 
point of boards pointed out ahead of the auto, 
like a poodle dog’s nose or like the cow-catcher 
on a choo-choo locomotive. 

“ What in the world is that? ” cried Nurse 
Jane. 

“ That is my automobile snow plow,” an- 
swered Uncle Wiggily. “ I have put a sharp 


190 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


plow out in front of my auto, and when I start 
the machine the plow will push the snow away, 
just as the trolley snow plow does ; or one pulled 
by horses. 

“ Then I can open paths all around here, and 
my friends can walk out without getting into a 
deep drift, and you can go to the store without 
having to wear rubber boots.” 

“ That will be very nice — if you can do it,” 
said Nurse Jane, as he shook some snow off her 
tail. 

“ You watch and see me do it! ” Uncle Wig- 
gily cried. 

So he got into his auto, and turned on the 
gasoline and he moved the what-you-may-call-it 
over one way, and the thing-a-ma-bob over the 
other way. Then he pulled on some handles and, 
presto-chango ! off went the auto. 

And, as it moved along the sharp boards of the 
snow plow out in front were pushed along with 
it, and the snow was tossed off to one side or the 
other, leaving a nice smooth path behind, and 
the auto ran along this path, all around the 
animal town where Uncle Wiggily Longears 
lived. 

Through the big drifts the rabbit gentleman 
drove the auto snow plow, scattering the snow 


Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Plow 191 


more and more, and opening up broad paths. 
First he made a path to Grandfather Goosey 
Gander’s house, and then to Sammie Littletail’s, 
and then to the home of Alice, Lulu and Jimmie 
Wibblewobble, the ducks, and then to the coop 
where Charlie and Arabella Chick lived. 

“Oh joy! Here is Uncle Wiggily! He has 
made paths for us, and now we can get out and 
play ! ” cried all the animal children. They were 
very happy, because they had been snowed in too, 
but Uncle Wiggily had now plowed them out. 

All around animal town Uncle Wiggily drove 
his auto snow plow, scattering the big drifts, and 
he made a path to the house of a poor old mouse 
lady, who could travel only when there was very 
little snow. And she had not been able to get 
out to buy any cheese in three days, because of 
the wind and snow. But now, with a nice path, 
it was easy for her. And she was so thankful to 
Uncle Wiggily that she made him a cheese pud- 
ding with raisins and carrots in it. 

Then the rabbit gentleman went over to play 
Scotch checkers with Grandpa Goosey Gander, 
and when it was time to go home the rabbit 
gentleman could ride in his auto without any 
plow on it, for the paths were all open now. 

And that’s all for a while. But in the next 


192 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


chapter, if the pancake-turner doesn’t go to a 
dance with the egg-beater and break its handle, 
I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Mrs. 
Chick, the hen lady. 


CHAPTER XXV 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND MRS. CHICK 

After the March wind had blown so hard, 
tossing Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit 
gentleman, into his own yard, and tangling him 
up in Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy’s clothes line, 
and after he had used the automobile snow plow 
to clear the paths in animal land of the deep 
drifts, there was more pleasant weather for a 
while. It did not snow, and the sun shone rather 
warmly. All the animals were happy, for snow 
to them means that they have to work hard to get 
anything to eat. 

In a few weeks it would be Spring, with April 
showers bringing May flowers, and all that sort 
of thing. There was still some snow on the 
ground, and it was still cold, but you could tell 
that in a few months it would be Summer-time. 

“ Well, I think it will do me no harm to take 
a walk in the woods and fields to-day,” said 
Uncle Wiggily one morning, as he hopped out of 
bed, and stood on his head just to prove that he 
193 


194 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


wasn’t getting any older. He also practiced a 
few steps of the new Swiss cheese sandwich 
dance, where you jump over a hole every now 
and then. 

When the rabbit gentleman went down stairs 
he said to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy: 

“ Do you mind if I go out to-day? ” 

Nurse Jane took off her glasses, which she had 
put on to look for the egg beater, that had played 
hide and go seek under the sink with the stove 
lifter and had gone to sleep there. Then the 
muskrat lady said : 

“ Why, no, Uncle Wiggily, I think it would 
do you good to go out to-day. You need a little 
exercise.” 

“ Then I’ll go ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ Whoop-de-doodledoo ! ” and he danced part of 
the fishtail flop, one of the new dances he had 
learned from the waltzing mouse lady in the 
woods. 

“ You must be feeling pretty good,” said 
Nurse Jane, as she dished out the carrot oatmeal, 
with orange sauce on, for breakfast. 

“I am ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. “ I think it 
must be because Spring is coming.” 

So in a little while, not so very long, after a 
while, Uncle Wiggily went out for his walk. He 


Uncle Wiggily and Mrs. Chick 195 


was going to take his automobile along, but as it 
happened the March wind had blown so hard 
that it had blown all the air out of the tires, and 
Uncle Wiggily had no time to pump them up. 
So he walked. 

Pretty soon the rabbit gentleman came to the 
coop where Charlie and Arabella, the chicken 
boy and girl, lived. 

“ I think I will go in and pay them a little 
visit,” he said to himself. “ Of course Charlie 
and Arabella will be at school, but I can visit 
awhile with Mrs. Chick, and perhaps Mr. Cock 
A. Doodle, the rooster gentleman, might drop in 
for a cup of tea.” 

So in went Uncle Wiggily, and he was quite 
surprised when he heard some one in the coop 
crying very sadly. 

“ Gracious me sakes alive and some peanut 
pancakes ! ” the rabbit gentleman exclaimed. “ I 
hope nothing has happened ! ” 

No one came to meet him, but the crying grew 
louder, and then Uncle Wiggily heard Arabella 
saying: 

“ Oh, mamma, you must come to me. I am so 
lonesome here all by myself. I want you to tell 
me a story, and my head is so hot, and I want a 
drink of water ! ” 


196 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


“ My ! Arabella is ill ! ” cried Uncle Wiggily. 
“ I must look into this.” 

Then he heard Mrs. Chick in another room, 
answer : 

“ Oh, Arabella, dear, I cannot come to you 
now. Can’t you wait until Charlie comes home. 
Then I will send him for Dr. Possum and a 
nurse.” 

“ Gracious goodness me sakes alive and some 
jam with bread and butter on! ” Uncle Wiggily 
cried. “ Mrs. Chick must be ill also. This is 
too bad ! ” 

Then he heard Arabella again ask: 

“ Mamma, why can’t you come to me? ” 

“ Because, dear,” answered the hen lady, “ I 
am hatching out some little brothers and sisters 
for you from the eggs, and if I go to you now the 
eggs will all get cold, and the little chickens 
inside will all die. You know, eggs must be 
kept warm to hatch, and if they get too cold they 
will almost freeze. You see, these are very early 
chickens I am hatching, and the weather is not 
as warm as it will be later. So I dare not go off 
the eggs, even for a minute.” 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Arabella. “ My head 
hurts, and my feet are cold, and I want a drink, 
and ” 


Uncle Wiggily and Mrs. Chick 197 


“ Oh, I am so sorry ! ” said Mrs. Chick. “ If 
only we had some one in to help us ; but Charlie 
has gone to school, and there is no one else.” 

“ Oh, yes, there is! ” cried Uncle Wiggily in 
his jolly voice. “ I am here, Mrs. Chick, I came 
just in time, it seems. Let me do something.” 

“ Oh, you dear kind rabbit gentleman! ” said 
Mrs. Chick. “ You are so good. But can you 
make a hot mustard foot-bath for Arabella, and 
give her the medicine, cool her head and do all 
that? She is getting the pip, I fear.” 

“ Well, I might be able to do all that,” said 
Uncle Wiggily. “ But I suppose you could do 
it much better.” 

“ Yes, but I dare not get off the eggs I am 
hatching,” the hen lady said. “ That is the 
trouble.” 

“ Then it is a trouble that we can very easily 
fix,” said Uncle Wiggily. “ My fur is soft and 
warm. I can cover up the eggs with my fur as 
well as you can with your feathers, and I can 
hatch out the chickens, I think. Will you let me 
try? ” 

“ Indeed, I will, thank you ! ” cried Mrs. 
Chick. “ Then I can go in to look after Ara- 
bella.” 

So Uncle Wiggily went into the next room, 


198 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


where, in a soft nest of straw, Mrs. Chick was 
sitting on a dozen eggs to keep them warm, and 
hatch out the little chickens which were inside 
the eggs. 

In a second Mrs. Chick slipped off the eggs, 
and the next second Uncle Wiggily got softly 
into the nest, and with his warm fur he hovered 
himself down over the eggs, and so they didn’t 
get cold a single mite. 

“ Now you go take care of Arabella,” said 
Uncle Wiggily, “ and I will hatch out the little 
chickies for you.” 

“ You are very kind,” said Mrs. Chick, ruffl- 
up her feathers. 

“ It is a mere pleasure to me,” Uncle Wiggily 
said, most politely. 

So Uncle Wiggily began to hatch out the eggs, 
and Mrs. Chick went in to take care of poor, ill 
Arabella. And when Uncle Wiggily was there, 
warming the eggs, Grandfather Goosey Gander, 
who had seen him go in the chicken-house, came 
along and called : 

“ Come on out, Uncle Wiggily, and have a 
game of Scotch checkers with me ! ” 

“ Oh, it is impossible ! ” answered the rabbit 
gentleman. “ I must hatch out the eggs,” and 
he snuggled closer and warmer down over them, 


Uncle Wiggily and Mrs. Chick 199 


while Mrs. Chick took care of Arabella who 
soon was a little better. But the rabbit gentle- 
man still sat on the eggs. And so that is how 
Uncle Wiggily helped Mrs. Chick, just as I told 
you he would, for he always helped any one he 
could. 

And in the last chapter, if the snowball doesn’t 
roll all around on the parlor rug and freeze the 
nose of the brass monkey on top of the bookcase, 
I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the little 
chickies. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LITTLE CHICKIES 

“ Well, how is Arabella this morning? ” 
asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gen- 
tleman, of Mrs. Chick, the hen lady, as she came 
to the door of the room where he was all huddled 
up on some eggs to keep them warm so the little 
chickies would hatch out. “ How is Arabella 
feeling? ” 

“ Oh, I am sorry to say she is not very well,” 
replied Mrs. Chick sadly. “ I thought she would 
soon be well, but I shall have to stay and nurse 
her myself, for Dr. Possum says she has the 
toodle-oodles, instead of the pip, and the toodle- 
oodles are very catching. And, as I want no 
one else to become ill, I will just nurse Arabella 
myself, that is, if you can stay and hatch my eggs, 
as you kindly offered to do.” 

“ Of course I’ll stay and hatch out these eggs,” 
replied the rabbit gentleman. “ I want to see the 
little chickies come out of the shells, and, any- 
200 


Uncle Wiggily and the Little Chickies 201 


how, I wouldn’t go away and leave you to look 
after Arabella all alone. For you couldn’t very 
well nurse Arabella and hatch the eggs, too.” 

“ Aren’t you afraid you’ll catch the toodle- 
oodles? ” asked Mrs. Chick. 

“ Not a bit of it ! ” laughed Uncle Wiggily. 
“ I’ve had it.” 

“ So have I,” said Mrs. Chick. “ I guess you 
and I are the only ones in animal land who have 
had it. So if you’re not afraid, you might stay 
and help me by hatching my eggs while I look 
after Arabella. I hope she will soon be better.” 

“ So do I,” remarked Uncle Wiggily. And 
then he huddled down closer on the eggs with 
his warm fur, which was just as good as were the 
soft downy feathers of Mrs. Chick for hatching 
out the little chicks. 

Now I suppose you think it a funny thing for 
a rabbit gentleman to be sitting on and hatching 
out chicken eggs. But if you have read the story 
before this one you’ll understand all about it. 
And in case you didn’t, I’ll tell you. It just goes 
to show how kind Uncle Wiggily was. Why, 
he’d do anything for anybody, from putting out 
the coal-ashes on a frosty morning to hatching 
eggs. Well, I guess yes ! And some lollypop ice 
cream besides. 


202 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


The way it happened was this : One day Uncle 
Wiggily stopped in the chicken house to see the 
hen lady. He heard Arabella crying for her 
mamma in a sick sort of a voice, and he heard 
Mrs. Chick say she couldn’t come just then, as 
she was hatching out some new little chickies 
from eggs. And if she got off the eggs, which 
she was keeping warm, and the eggs became 
cold, the little chickies inside them would die. 

So Uncle Wiggily very kindly said he’d stay 
on the eggs while Mrs. Chick went to wait on her 
little girl Arabella. For you know eggs only 
need to be kept warm to bring out the little 
chickens; and you could hatch them out in your 
own oven if you left them in long enough and 
they were kept just warm enough — not too warm 
and not too cold. But please don’t try it, for it 
takes three weeks, and if you put eggs in your 
oven that long mamma couldn’t bake any pud- 
dings or pies, and where would you be then, I’d 
like to know? 

So Uncle Wiggily was warming the eggs with 
his fur, and it happened that Arabella was more 
ill than any one supposed. She had the dreadful 
toodle-oodle disease, which is very catching. 
Even her brother Charlie was not allowed to 
come inside the house. He had to go and stay 


Uncle Wiggily and the Little Chickies 203 


with Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, 
and very glad they were to have him, too. 

“ Do you hear any peeps coming from the 
eggs? ” asked Mrs. Chick, as she stood in the 
doorway of the room where Uncle Wiggily was. 
Mrs. Chick was taking some medicine to Ara- 
bella. “ Do you hear any peeps? ” she asked. 

“ Well,” remarked Uncle Wiggily, “ to tell 
you the truth, I do not, though I have listened 
very carefully. First I thought I heard one, but 
it was only the door squeaking on rusty hinges. 
But this is the first time I ever hatched out 
chickens, so perhaps you had better listen. You 
know more about it than I do.” 

“ I will,” said Mrs. Chick, so she went up close 
to where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit 
gentleman, was hovering over the eggs, and she 
listened, Mrs. Chick did, and then she shook her 
head. 

“ No,” she said, “ they are not peeping yet. 
But they will soon. I think they will be out of 
their shells to-day.” 

“ And I will be very glad when they are,” said 
Uncle Wiggily. “ Not that I am tired ! ” he ex- 
claimed quickly. “No, indeed! But I am 
anxious to see the little chicks. They will be the 


204 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


first batch I have ever hatched. It is something 
new for me.” 

“ Indeed it must be,” said Mrs. Chick. 

“ But then I like new things,” said Uncle Wig- 
gily with a laugh. “ I have even learned some of 
the new dances.” 

“ Have you indeed? ” asked Mrs. Chick in 
surprise. 

“ Oh, yes,” replied the rabbit gentleman. “ I 
can do the carrot swing and the turnip walk, the 
pancake waltz and the oatmeal flopover, which 
is very hard, indeed, but good for the rheu- 
matism.” 

“ I would like to see you dance when the 
chickies are hatched,” said Mrs. Chick. Then 
she went off to look after Arabella, who had a 
sort of fever, and Uncle Wiggily kept on hatch- 
ing out the chickens. 

It was rather quiet there, in the darkened room 
where he hovered over the eggs in a nest of clean 
straw; very quiet and still. Arabella had been 
crying, but she had stopped now, and pretty soon 
Uncle Wiggily dozed off, and the rabbit gentle- 
man went to sleep, as bunnies sometimes will. 

And then, all of a sudden, he heard a little 
noise. 

“ Peep ! peep ! peep ! ” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Little Chickies 205 


“ Gracious goodness me sakes alive and some 
butter hash ! ” cried the rabbit gentleman. 
“ What can that be? ” 

The noise came again. 

“ Peep ! peep ! peep ! ” 

“ I wonder if the chickens are hatching? ” said 
Uncle Wiggily. Then he felt something moving 
under him and something pricked him on the 
leg, not a very hard prick, you understand, but 
very gently, as if it were the head of a pin and 
not the point. 

“ I believe the chickies are coming out ! ” he 
cried. “ Oh, Mrs. Chick, come here ! ” he called. 

The hen lady came running. 

“ Listen! ” said Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Peep ! peep ! peep ! ” came from underneath 
his fur. 

“Yes, they are hatching!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Chick joyfully. “ Now get up very gently, so as 
not to hurt them.” 

Uncle Wiggily got up off the nest and there, 
surely enough, several of the shells were cracked 
open. One little chickie had stuck out its bill, 
and it was that which had pricked Uncle Wig- 
gily. But he didn’t mind a bit. 

Then more shells broke open and out came 


206 


Uncle Wiggily Longears 


the dear little fluffy downy yellow and white 
chickies. 

“ Peep ! peep ! peep ! ” they cried. 

“ Oh, I have hatched them ! I have hatched 
them ! ” said Uncle Wiggily, joyfully. And so 
he had. 

Out of the shells came more soft little, downy 
chickens, until there were a dozen of them, cry- 
ing “ Peep ! Peep ! ” 

“ Be careful not to step on any of them,” said 
Mrs. Chick, the hen lady. 

“ Oh, I’ll be careful,” promised Uncle Wig- 
gily Longears. “My! I never thought I could 
hatch eggs,” and Uncle Wiggily was very 
proud; not too proud, you understand, but just 
proud enough. 

And there stood the little chickies, peeping 
first at each other, and then at the hen lady, 
saying Mamma ! Mamma.” 

“ Well, if she’s your mamma, I guess I’m the 
papa,” laughed Uncle Wiggily, and the chickies 
snuggled up in his warm fur. 

“ You were very kind to hatch out my little 
family,” said Mrs. Chick. “ I never can thank 
you enough. But, now that Arabella is better, 
I can look after her, and the new chickies too. 
And Charlie can come home and help.” 


Uncle Wiggily and the Little Chickies 207 


“ Then you won’t need me any more?” asked 
Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Not to hatch eggs, at any rate,” spoke the 
hen lady. “ But of course you may stay here 
as long as you like.” 

“Well, I think I will take a little vacation, 
and go see some of my friends,” spoke the rabbit 
gentleman. And away he went sometimes 
traveling in his automobile, sometimes flying in 
his airship, and again limping along on his red 
white and blue rheumatism crutch, that Nurse 
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, had 
gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. 

And so, as this book is just as full of stodes 
as it will hold, as you can easily see for your- 
self, I will have to put the others in another 
volume. 

I shall call it “Uncle Wiggily and Baby 
Bunty,” and it will be different from the other 
Uncle Wiggily books. There will be in it a 
number of stories of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy 
and a funny girl rabbit named Baby Bunty. 
You’ll like her, I’m sure. 

So we’ll just say good-bye for a little time, until 
the new book is ready, and then I hope to have 
you all for my little friends once again. Oh, I 
forgot. Uncle Wiggily says good-bye, too, and 


208 


Uncle Wiggily Lon gears 


he is blowing kisses, from the tips of his paws, 
to all the little girls. Isn’t he the great old rabbit, 
though? Well, I just guess, yes, and some lolly- 
pop soup besides. 

And that’s all — for a while. 

THE END. 


Uncle Wiggily Picture Books 


Three stones in 
each book 

By 

Howard R. Garis 



Also twenty-seven 
color pictures 

By 

Lang Campbell 


In these funny little books you can see in bright colored pictures the 
adventures of myself and my woodland friends. Also the pictures of some 
bad fellows, whose names you know. 

So if the spoon holder doesn’t go down cellar and take the coal shovel 
away from the gas stove, you may read 

No. V UNCLE WIGGILY’S AUTO SLED 

If the rocking chair doesn’t tickle the rag carpet and make the brass bed 
fall upstairs, you may read 

No. 2. UNCLE WIGGILY’S SNOW MAN 

If the umbrella doesn’t go out in the rain and splash ^ater all over the 
rubber boots on the gold fish, you may read 

No. 3. UNCLE WIGGILY’S HOLIDAYS 

If the electric light doesn’t cry for some molasses, when the match leaves 
it all alone in the china closet, you may read 

No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY’S APPLE ROAST 

If the egg beater doesn’t try to jump over the coffee pot and fall in the 
sink when the potato is learning to swim, you may read 

No. 5. UNCLE WIGGILY’S PICNIC 

If the sugar cookie doesn’t go out walking with the fountain pen, and 
get all black so it looks like a chocolate cake, you may read 

No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING 

Hurry up and get these nice little books from the bookstore man, or send 
direct to the publishers, SO cents per copy, postpaid. 


CHARLES E. GRAHAM & CO. 

NEW YORK 


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Burt’s Series of One Syllable Books 

14 Titles. Handsome Illuminated Cloth Binding 

A series of Classics, selected specially for young people’s reading, and 
told in simple language for youngest readers. Printed from large type, 
with many illustrations. 


Price 75 Cents per Volume 


iESOP’S FABLES 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mary Godolphin. 
With 41 illustrations. 

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mrs. J. C. Gor- 
ham. With many illustrations. 

ANDERSEN’S FAIRY TALES 

(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Bv 
Harriet T. Comstock. With many illustrations. 

BIBLE HEROES 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Harriet T. Com- 
stock. With many illustrations. 

BLACK BEAUTY 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mrs. J. C. Gor- 
ham. W'ith many illustrations. 

GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES 

(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable. By Jean S. Remy. 
With many illustrations. 

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS 

Into several remote regions of the world. Retold in words of one sylla- 
ble for young people. By J. C. G. With 32 illustrations. 

LIFE OF CHRIST 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Jean S. Remy. 
With many illustrations. 

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 

Told in words of one syllable for young people. By Jean S. Remy. 
With 24 large portraits. 

PILGRIM’S PROGRESS 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Samuel Phil- 
lips Day. With 33 illustrations. 

REYNARD THE FOX 

The Crafty Courtier. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. 
Bv Samuel Phillips Day. With 23 illustrations. 

ROBINSON CRUSOE 

His life and surprising adventures retold in words of one syllable for 
young people. By Mary A. Schwacofer. With 32 illustrations. 

SANFORD AND MERTON 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By Mary Godolphin. 
With 20 illustrations. 

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON 

Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Adapted from the 
Driginal. Wiith 31 illustrations. 


For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 
price by the publishers, A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 
23rd Street, New York. 











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